Skip to main content

Full text of "The Heimskringla : or, Chronicle of the kings of Norway"

See other formats 


HAROLD  B.  LEE  LIBRARY 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSI-Pr 

PROVO,  UTAH 


\ 


I 


?T 
7  277 

L2^^  THE     HBIMSKRINGLA; 

OB, 


CHRONICLE 

OF 

THE   KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 

TRANSLATED 

FROM    THE   ICELANDIC  OF    SNORRO   STURLESON, 
?EBit]b  a  ^tdiminarg  Bissettation, 

BY 

SAMUEL   LAING,   ESQ. 

AUTHOR    or    "  A    RESIDENCE    IN    NORWAY,"    "  A    TOUR    IN    SWEDEN," 
"  NOTES    OF    A    TRAVELLER,"    ETC. 


IN    THREE     VOLUMES. 

VOL.   I. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED    FOR 

LONGMAN,   BROWN,   GREEN,    AND  LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 

1844. 


NOTICE. 


The  Publishers  of  this  work  beg  to  state  that  it  is  private  property,  protected  by 
the  late  Copyright  Act,  the  5  &  6  Victoria,  c.  45.  They  beg  also  to  state  that  any 
person  having  in  his  possession,  within  the  United  Kingdom,  for  sale  or  hire,  one 
or  more  copies  printed  abroad  of  any  English  work  protected  by  the  Act  referred 
to,  is  liable  to  a  penalty,  which,  in  cases  affecting  their  interests,  they  intend  to 
enforce. 

The  Public  are  farther  informed  that  the  Act  5  &  6  Victoria,  c.  47.  s.  24.,  prohibits 
the  importation  of  all  works  printed  in  foreign  countries,  of  which  the  copyright  is 
not  expired.  Even  single  copies,  though  for  the  especial  use  of  the  importers  and 
marked  with  their  names,  are  excluded  ;  and  the  Customs  officers  in  the  different 
ports  are  strictly  enjoined  to  carry  this  regulation  into  effect. 

N.B.  —  The  above  regulations  are  in  force  in  all  British  colonies  and  de- 
dendencies,  as  well  as  in  the  United  Kingdom. 


London  : 

Printed  by  A,  Spottiswoode, 

New-  Street-  Square, 


HAROLD  B.  LEE  LIBRAf^  ■ 

BRIQHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSIT  ' 

PROVG.  U  .  .^.H 


PREFACE. 


It  is  of  importance  to  English  history  to  have,  in  the 
English  language,  the  means  of  judging  of  the  social 
and  intellectual  state — of  the  institutions  and  literature 
— of  a  people  who  during  300  years  bore  an  important, 
and  for  a  great  portion  of  that  time  a  predominant 
part,  not  merely  in  the  wars,  but  in*  the  legislation  of 
England ;  who  occupied  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
country,  and  were  settled  in  its  best  lands  in  such 
numbers  as  to  be  governed  by  their  own,  not  by  Anglo- 
Saxon  laws ;  and  who  undoubtedly  must  be  the  fore- 
fathers of  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  present  English 
nation   as   the  Anglo-Saxons   themselves,    and  of  a 
much  larger  proportion  than  the  Normans.      These 
Northmen  have  not  merely  been   the  forefathers  of 
the  people,'  but  of  the  institutions  and  character  of  the 
nation,  to  an  extent  not  sufficiently  considered  by  our 
historians.     Civihsed  or  not  in  comparison  with  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  the  Northmen  must  have  left  the  in- 
fluences of  their  character,  institutions,  barbarism  or 
culture,  among  their  own  posterity.     They  occupied 
one  third  of  all  England  for  many  generations,  under 
their  own  Danish  laws ;  and  for  half  a  century  nearly, 
immediately  previous  to  the  Norman  conquerors,  they 

A  2 


IV  PREFACE. 

held  the  supreme  government  of  the  country.  It  is 
doing  good  service  in  the  fields  of  literature  to  place 
the  English  reader  in  a  position  to  judge  for  himself 
of  the  influence  which  the  social  arrangements  and 
spirit  of  these  Northmen  may  have  had  on  the  national 
character,  and  free  institutions  which  have  grown  up 
among  us  from  elements  planted  by  them,  or  by  the 
Anglo-Saxons.  This  translation  of  Snorro  Sturleson's 
Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway  will  place  the 
English  reader  in  this  position.  He  will  see  what 
sort  of  people  these  Northmen  were  who  conquered 
and  colonised  the  kingdoms  of  Northumberland,  East 
Anglia,  and  other  districts,  equal  to  one  third  of  all 
England  at  that  time,  and  who  lived  under  their  own 
laws  in  that  portion  of  England ;  and  he  will  see  what 
their  institutions  and  social  spirit  were  at  home, 
whether  these  bear  any  analogy  to  what  sprung  up  in 
England  afterwards,  and  whether  to  them  or  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  we  are  most  indebted  for  our  na- 
tional character  and  free  constitution  of  government. 
The  translator  of  Snorro  Sturleson^s  Chronicle  hopes, 
too,  that  his  labour  will  be  of  good  service  in  the 
fields  of  literature,  by  bringing  before  the  English 
public  a  work  of  great  literary  merit, — one  which  the 
poet,  or  the  reader  for  amusement,  may  place  in  his 
library,  as  well  as  the  antiquary  and  reader  of  English 
history. 

The  translator  can  lay  claim  to  no  considerable  know- 
ledge of  or  great  familiarity  with  the  Icelandic.  To 
get  at  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  text  in  any  way 
was  his  main  object ;  and  where  he  met  difliculties, 
which  generally  lay  only  in  his  own  ignorance,  he 


PREFACE.  V 

spared  no  labour  in  collating  the  passages  he  was  in 
doubt  about  with  the  Swedish  translation  in  Pering- 
skiold's  edition  of  the  work, — with  the  Danish  trans- 
lation in  the  edition  begun  1777  by  Schoning  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Danish  government,  and  finished 
in  1826  by  Thorlacius  and  "Werlaug,  in  6  vols,  folio,  — 
and  with  the  excellent  translation  of  it  into  Norse  by 
M.  Jacob  Aal,  published  in  quarto,  in  1838,  at  Chris- 
tiania.  His  notes  and  explanations  are  derived  mostly 
from  these  sources,  and  principally  from  M.  Jacob  Aal's 
work:    and  where  from  his  imperfect  acquaintance 
with  the  Icelandic  he  found  difficulties  in  the  text, 
especially  in  the  Scaldic  poetry,  which  is  often  very  ob- 
scure, he  had  recourse  to  M.  Jacob  Aal's  translation  as 
the  best  guide  to  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  original. 
That  gentleman,  as  the  last  effort  of  a  long  life  spent 
in  commercial  and  literary  pursuits,  has  translated 
Snorro  Sturleson's  Chronicle,  and  the  Sagas  of  the 
succeeding  times  down  to  the  end  of  Hakon  Hakons- 
son's  reign  in  1263,  for  the  use  of  the  Norwegian  pea- 
santry.    He  remembered  in  his  youth  that  these  his- 
tories, although  in  the  old  and  almost  obsolete  language 
of  Peter  Clausson's  translation  of  1599,  were  a  house- 
book  read  at  the  fireside  of  almost  every  peasant  in 
Norway ;  and  at  a  great  expense  he  has  published  a 
new  translation  of  them  into  Norse,  and  has  placed 
the  book,  at  a  merely  nominal  price  considering  its 
magnificence,  again  within  reach  of  his  countrymen. 
In  the  present  translation  the  object  has  been  to  make 
it,  like  M.  Jacob  Aal's,  not  merely  a  work  for  the 
antiquary,  but  for  theordinary  reader  of  history, — for 
the  common  man. 


VI  PREFACE. 

The  translator  believes,  also,  that  it  opens  up  a 
new  and  rich  field  of  character  and  incident,  in 
which  the  reader  who  seeks  amusement  only  will  find 
much  to  interest  him.  The  adventure's,  manners, 
mode  of  living,  characters,  and  conversations  of  these 
sea-kings,  are  highly  dramatic,  in  Snorro's  work  at 
least;  and  are  told  with  a  racy  simplicity  and  truth- 
fulness of  language  which  the  translator  cannot  flatter 
himself  with  having  attained  or  preserved.  All  he 
can  say  for  his  work  is,  that  any  translation  is  better 
than  none ;  and  others  may  be  stimulated  by  it  to 
enter  into  the  same  course  of  study,  who  may  do 
more  justice  to  a  branch  of  literature  scarcely  known 
among  us. 

Edinburgh,  1844. 


CONTENTS 

OF 

THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


PRELIMINARY  DISSERTATION. 

Page 

Chapter  I. 
Of  the  Literature  and  Intellectual  Condition  of  the  Northmen       1 

Chapter  II. 
Of  the  Religion  of  the  Northmen       -  -  -  -     69 

Chapter  III. 
Of  the  Social  Condition  of  the  Northmen       -  -  -     95 

Chapter  IV. 
State  of  the  Useful  Arts  among  the  Northmen  -  -  130 

Chapter  V. 

Of  the  Discovery  of  Greenland  and  America  by  the  North- 
men *------  141 

Memoir  of  Snorro  Sturleson      -  -  -  -  188 


THE     HEIMSKRINGLA. 

Preface  of  Snorro  Sturleson  -      .      -  -  -  211 

SAGA  I. 

Ynglinga  Saga,  or  the  Story  of  the  Yngling  Family  from  Odin 
to  Halfdan  the  Black  -  -  -  -  -  216 

SAGA  II. 

Halfdan  the  Black's  Saga      -  -  -  -  -  262 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

SAGA    III.  PAGE 

Harald  Haarfager's  Saga       -  -  -  -  -  271 

SAGA  IV. 

Hakon  the  Good's  Saga         -  -  -  -  314 

SAGA  V. 

Saga  of  King  Harald  Greyskin,   and  of  Earl  Hakon  son  of 
Sigurd      -  -  -  -  -  -  -  349 

SAGA  VI. 

King  Olaf  Tryggvesson's  Saga  _  _  «  .  367 


THE 


HEIMSKRINGLA 


OB, 


CHRONICLE  OF  THE   KINGS  OF   NORWAY. 


PRELIMINARY  DISSERTATION. 


CHAPTER  L 

OF    THE    LITERATURE    AND    INTELLECTUAL    CONDITION    OF 

THE    NORTHMEN. 

Snorro  Sturleson's  Heimskrhipia  is  a  work  known    p^^ELiivr 


to  few  English  readers.  Heimskringla — the  world's 
circle — being  the  first  prominent  word  of  the  manu- 
script that  catches  the  eye,  has  been  quaintly  used  by 
the  northern  antiquaries  to  designate  the  work  itself. 
One  may  well  imagine  that  the  librarian,  or  the  scholar, 
in  the  midst  of  the  rolls  and  masses  of  parchments  of 
the  great  public  and  private  libraries  of  Copenhagen 
and  Stockholm,  has  found  his  advantage  in  this  simple 
way  of  directing  an  unlettered  assistant  to  the  skin  he 
wishes  to  unfold.  It  is  likely  that  the  illuminated 
initial  letters  of  ancient  manuscripts,  and  of  the  early 
printed  books,  may  have  had  their  origin  in  a  similar 
use  or  convenience  in  the  monastic  libraries  of  the 
middle  ages.  Snorro  himself  is  guiltless  of  this  pe- 
dantic conceit ;  for  he  calls  his  work  the  Saga  or  Story 
of  the  Kings  of  Norway.  It  is  in  reality  a  chronicle, 
or  rather  a  connected  series  of  memoirs,  of  kings  and 

VOL.  I.  B 


Chai-.  I. 


i 


2  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

DESSERT    ^^^^^  personages,  and  of  the  events  in  which  they 

have   been    engaged   in  Norway,  Denmark,  Sweden, 

England,  and  other  countries,  from  those  early  ages 
in  which  mythology  and  history  are  undistinguishably 
blended  together,  down  to  the  period  nearly  of  Snorro 
Sturleson's  o^vn  birth,  to  1178.  Snorro  begins  with 
Odin  and  the  half-fabulous  tales  of  the  Yngling 
dynasty,  and,  showing  more  judgment  than  many  of 
the  modern  Saga  scholars  and  antiquaries,  passes  ra- 
pidly over  these  as  an  unavoidable  introduction  to 
authentic  historical  times  and  narratives.  From  the 
middle  of  the  9th  century,  from  Halfdan  the  Black, 
who  reigned  from  about  the  year  841  to  about  863, 
do^vn  to  Magnus  Erlingsson,  who  reigned  from  about 
1162  to  1184,  he  gives  a  continuous  narrative  of  events 
and  incidents  in  public  and  private  life,  very  descrip- 
tive and  characteristic  of  the  men  and  manners  of  those 
times,  —  of  the  deeds  of  bold  and  bloody  sea-kings,  — 
of  their  cruises,  of  their  forays,  of  their  adventures, 
battles,  conquests  in  foreign  lands,  — -  and  of  their  home 
fireside  lives  also;  and  he  gives,  every  now  and  then, 
very  graphic  delineations  of  the  domestic  manners, 
way  of  thinking,  acting,  and  living  in  those  ages  ;  very 
striking  traits  of  a  semi-barbarous  state  of  mind,  in 
which  rapacity,  cruelty,  and  bloody  ferocious  doings, 
are  not  unfrequently  lightened  up  by  a  ray  of  high 
and  generous  feeling ;  and  he  gives  too,  every  now 
a,nd  then,  very  natural  touches  of  character,  and 
scenes  of  human  action,  and  of  the  working  of  the 
human  mind,  which  are,  in  truth,  highly  dramatic. 
In  rapid  narrative  of  the  stirring  events  of  the  wild 
Viking  life,  —  of  its  vicissitudes,  adventures,  and  ex- 
ploits,— in  extraordinary  yet  not  improbable  incidents 
and  changes  in  the  career  of  individuals, — in  touches 
true  to  nature,  —  and  in  the  admirable  management  ot 
his  story,  in  which  episodes,  apparently  the  most  un- 
connected with  his  subject,  come  in  by  and  by,  at  the 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  I. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 

ri2:lit  moment,  as  most  essential  parts  of  it,  —  Snorro  treltm. 
Sturleson  stands  as  far  above  Yille  Hardouin,  Joinville, 
or  Froissart,  as  they  stand  above  the  monkish  chro- 
niclers who  preceded  them.  His  true  seat  in  the 
Valhalla  of  European  literature  is  on  the  same  bench 
— however  great  the  distance  between — on  the  same 
bench  with  Shakspeare,  Carlysle,  and  Scott,  as  a  dra- 
matic historian ;  for  his  Harald  Haarfager,  his  Olaf 
Tryggvesson,  his  Olaf  the  Saint,  are  in  reality  great 
historical  dramas,  in  which  these  wild  energetic  per- 
sonages, their  adherents  and  their  opponents,  are 
presented  working,  acting,  and  speaking  before  you. 

This  high  estimate  of  the  literary  merit  of  Snorro 
Sturleson' s  work  will  scarcely  pass  unquestioned  by 
English  readers,  —  accustomed  indeed  to  hear  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  literature,  language,  and  institutions,  as 
of  great  importance  to  the  historian  and  antiquary, 
and  as  a  study  necessary  for  those  who  wish  to  become 
perfectly  acquainted  with  our  o^^al,  but  who  would 
never  discover  from  the  pages  of  Hume,  or  of  any 
other  of  our  historical  writers,  that  the  northern 
pagans  who,  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  ravaged 
the  coasts  of  Europe,  sparing  neither  age,  sex,  nor 
condition — respecting  neither  churches,  monasteries, 
nor  their  inmates — conquering  Normandy,  Northum- 
berland (then  reckoned,  with  East-Anglia,  equal  to  one 
third  of  all  England) — and,  under  Swein  and  Canute 
the  Great,  conquering  and  ruling  over  the  whole  of 
England, — were  a  people  possessing  any  literature  at 
all,  or  any  laws,  institutions,  arts,  or  manners  con- 
necting them  with  civilised  life.  Our  historians  have 
conhned  themselves  for  information  entirely  to  the 
records  and  chronicles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  monks, 
who,  from  their  convent  walls,  saw  with  horror  and 
dismay  the  bands  of  these  bloodthirsty  pagans  roving 
through  the  country,  ravaging,  burning,  and  mur- 
dering ;    and  who  naturally  represent  them  as  the 

B  2 


4  CHRONICLE    OF    TTTE 

^Jt^i^L'^-     niost  ferocious  and  imorant  of  barbarians,  and  with- 
out  any  tincture  of  civilisation.     Our  historians  and 

CwAP.    I.  .  *^ 

their  readers  are  apt  to  forget  altogether  that,  pagan 
and  barbarian  as  these  Danes  or  Northmen  of  the 
9th  and  10th  centuries  undoubtedly  were,  they  were 
the  same  people,  only  in  a  different  stage  of  civilis- 
ation, as  the  Anglo-Saxons  themselves,  and  were  in 
the  10th  century,  in  their  social  state,  institutions, 
laws,  religion,  and  language,  what  the  Anglo-Saxons 
had  been  in  the  5th  century,  when  they  first  landed 
on  the  Isle  of  Thanet.  They  forget,  too,  that  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  and  with  it  of  the  Latin 
language,  and  of  the  learning  which  had  a  reference 
only  to  the  church,  and  the  introduction  of  social 
arrangements,  establishments,  and  ideas  of  polity  and 
government,  cast  in  one  mould  for  all  countries  of 
Christendom  by  the  Romish  church,  had  during  these 
five  centuries  altered,  exhausted,  and  rendered  almost 
efi'ete,  the  original  spirit  and  character  of  Anglo-Saxon 
social  institutions.  They  do  not  sufiiciently  consider 
the  powerful  moral  influence  of  this  fresh  infusion,  in 
the  10th  century,  of  the  same  spirit,  from  the  same 
original  source,  upon  the  character,  ideas,  and  even 
forms  of  government  and  social  arrangements  of  the 
whole  English  population  in  the  subsequent  genera- 
tions, and  through  them  upon  the  whole  of  modern 
society.  They  do  not  sufiiciently  appreciate  the 
social  efi^ects  of  the  settlements  of  these  Northmen  in 
England  immediately  previous  to  the  Norman  con- 
quest, when  for  four  generations  of  kings,  viz.  Swein, 
Canute,  Harald,  and  Hardicanute,  they  had  been  sole 
masters  of  the  country,  and  had  possessed  and  held 
under  their  own  Danish  laws,  for  many  previous  gene- 
rations, what  was  reckoned  equal  to  one  third  of  all 
England.  The  renovation  of  Anglo-Saxon  institu- 
tions, the  revival  of  principles  and  social  spirit  which 
were  exhausted  in  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  race,  may  be 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  I 

traced  to  this  fresh  mfusion  from  the  comate  northern    p|^elim. 

'—'  D  lob  hilt  I. 


people.  This  sabject  is  very  curious  and  important. 
Two  nations  only  have  left  permanent  impressions 
of  their  laws,  civil  polity,  social  arrangements,  spirit, 
and  character,  on  the  civilised  communities  of  modern 
times — the  Romans,  and  the  handful  of  northern  people 
from  the  countries  beyond  the  Elbe  which  had  never 
submitted  to  the  Roman  yoke,  who,  issuing  in  small 
piratical  bands  from  the  5th  to  the  10th  century,  under 
the  name  of  Saxons,  Danes,  Northmen,- plundered,  con- 
quered, and  settled  on  every  European  coast  from  the 
White  Sea  to  Sicily.  Under  whatever  name,  Goths, 
Visigoths,  Franks,  Anglo-Saxons,  Danes,  or  Northmen, 
these  tribes  appear  to  have  been  all  of  one  original 
stock, — to  have  been  one  people  in  the  spirit  of  their 
religion,  laws,  institutions,  manners,  and  languages, 
only  in  different  stages  of  civilisation,  and  the  same 
people  whom  Tacitus  describes.  But  in  Germany 
the  laws  and  institutions  derived  from,  the  Roman 
power,  or  formed  under  it  after  the  Roman  empire 
became  Christianized,  had  buried  all  the  original  prin- 
ciples of  Teutonic  arrangements  of  society  as  described 
by  Tacitus  ;  and  in  France  the  name  was  almost  all 
that  remained  of  Frank  derivation.  All  the  original 
and  peculiar  character,  spirit,  and  social  institutions 
of  the  first  inundation  of  this  Germanic  population, 
had  become  diluted  and  merged  under  the  church 
government  of  Rome, — when  a  second  wave  of  popu- 
lations from  the  same  pagan  north  inundated  again, 
in  the  9th  and  10th  centuries,  the  shores  of  Chris- 
tendom. Wheresoever  this  people  from  beyond  the 
pale  and  influence  of  the  old  Roman  empire,  and  of 
the  later  church  empire  of  Rome,  either  settled, 
mingled,  or  marauded,  they  have  left  permanent  traces 
in  society  of  their  lav/s,  institutions,  character,  and 
spirit.  Pagan  and  barbarian  as  they  were,  they  seem 
to  have  carried  with  them  something  more  natural, 

B  3 


Chap.  I. 


Chap.  I. 


6  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

dTIsert,  something  more  suitable  to  the  social  wants  of  man, 
than  the  laws  and  institutions  formed  under  the 
Eoman  power.  What  traces  have  we  in  Britain  of  the 
Romans?  A  few  military  roads,  and  doubtful  sites 
of  camps,  posts,  and  towns,  —  a  few  traces  of  public 
works,  and  all  indicating  a  despotic  military  occupa- 
tion of  the  country,  and  none  a  civilised  condition  of 
the  mass  of  the  inhabitants, — alone  remain  in  England 
to  tell  the  world  that  here  the  Roman  power  flourished 
during  four  hundred  years. 

In  every  province  of  the  ancient  Roman  empire, 
even  in  Italy  itself,  the  remains  of  Roman  power  are 
of  the  same  character  —  whether  those  remains  be  of 
material  objects,  as  edifices,  public  works,  roads,  tem- 
ples, statues — or  of  moral  objects,  as  law,  government, 
religion,  and  social  arrangement ;  and  that  character 
is  of  a  hard  iron  despotism,  in  which  all  human  rights, 
all  individual  existence  in  wellbeing,  all  the  objects 
for  which  man  enters  into  social  union  with  his  fellow- 
man,  are  disregarded  in  favour  of  ruling  classes  or 
establishments  in  the  social  body,  noble,  military,  or 
clerical.     The   Saxon  occupation   of  England  lasted 
for  a  similar  period  to  the  Roman,  for  about  four  hun- 
dred years.     This  first  wave  of  the  flood  of  northern 
populations  has  left  among  us  traces  of  laws  and  in- 
stitutions, and  of  a  social  character  and  spirit,  in  which 
many  outlines  of  freedom  and  of  just  principles  of 
social  union  are  distinguishable ;  and  left  the  influences 
on  the  social  body  of  ideas,  manners,  language,  which 
still  exist.  But  these  traces  were  nearly  obliterated,  and 
it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  their  influence  on  society  was 
efl'ete,  —  that  in  Anglo-Saxon  England,  as  in  the  rest 
of  Europe,  all  social  arrangement,  character,  and  spirit 
were  assuming  one  shape  and  hue  under  the  pressure 
of  superstition,  and  of  the  Roman  power,  institutions, 
and  ascendency,  revived  through  the  influence  of  the 
church  of  Rome  which  had  been  in  full  operation  for 


DISSERT. 
ChaF.    I. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 

four  centuries  and  a  half,  assimilating  every  thing  to  Jfgl^iM. 
one  form  and  principle, — when  the  second  wave  of  the 
northern  populations,  the  Danes  or  Northmen,  came, 
under  Swein  and  Canute  the  Great,  to  invigorate  and 
renew  the  social  elements  left  by  the  first.  The  moral 
power  of  this  people  —  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  North- 
men being  essentially  the  same  people — has  left  deeper 
impressions  on  society,  and  of  a  nobler  character,  than 
the  despotic  material  power  of  the  Romans.  It  is  in 
activity  at  the  present  hour  in  European  society,  in- 
troducing into  every  country  more  just  ideas  than 
those  which  grew  up  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  Roman 
empire,  of  the  social  relations  of  the  governing  and 
the  governed.  The  history  of  modern  civilisation 
resolves  itself,  in  reality,  into  the  history  of  the  moral 
influences  of  these  two  nations.  All  would  have  been 
Roman  in  Europe  at  this  day  in  principle  and  social 
arrangement,  —  Europe  would  have  been,  like  Russia 
or  Turkey,  one  vast  den  of  slaves,  with  a  few  rows  in 
its  amphitheatre  of  kings,  nobles,  and  churchmen, 
raised  above  the  dark  mass  of  humanity  beneath  them, 
if  three  boats  from  the  north  of  the  Elbe  had  not 
landed  at  Ebbsfleet  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet  fourteen 
hundred  years  ago,  and  been  followed  by  a  succession 
of  similar  boat  expeditions  of  the  same  people,  ma- 
rauding, conquering,  and  settling,  during  six  hundred 
years,  viz.  from  449  to  1066.  All  that  men  hope  for 
of  good  government  and  future  improvement  in  their 
physical  and  moral  condition  —  all  that  civilised  men 
enjoy  at  this  day  of  civil,  religious,  and  political  liberty 
—  the  British  constitution,  representative  legislature, 
the  trial  by  jury,  security  of  property,  freedom  of 
mind  and  person,  the  influence  of  public  opinion  over 
the  conduct  of  public  afikirs,  the  Reformation,  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  the  spirit  of  the  age  —  all  that  is 
or  has  been  of  value  to  man  in  modern  times  as  a 
member  of  society,  either  in  Europe  or  in  the  New 

B   4 


Chap.  I. 


8  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

disIert"    ^"^orld,  may  be  traced  to  the  spark  left  burning  upon 
our  shores  by  these  northern  barbarians. 

Our  English  writers  and  readers  direct  their  atten- 
tion too  exclusively  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  branch  of 
this  great  Teutonic  race  of  people,  and  scarcely  ac- 
knowledge the  social  influence  of  the  admixture  of 
their  Danish  conquerors,  —  of  that  fresh  infusion  in 
the  10th  century,  from  the  same  original  stock,  of  the 
original  spirit,  character,  and  social  institutions.  The 
schoolman  and  the  political  antiquary  find  it  classical 
or  scholarlike  to  trace  up  to  obscure  intimations,  in 
the  treatise  of  Tacitus  on  the  ancient  Germans,  the 
origin  of  parliaments,  trial  by  jury,  and  all  other  free 
institutions,  assuming  somewhat  gratuitously  that  the 
seafaring  Saxons,  who,  four  hundred  years  after  the 
days  of  Tacitus,  crossed  the  sea  from  the  countries 
north  of  the  Elbe,  and  conquered  England,  were 
identical  in  laws  and  social  institutions  with  the  forest 
Germans  on  the  Rhine  whom  Tacitus  describes ;  and 
forgetting  that  a  much  nearer  and  more  natural  source 
of  all  the  social  elements  they  are  tracing  back  to  the 
forests  of  Germany  in  the  time  of  Agricola,  was  to  be 
found  in  full  vigour  among  the  people  who  had  con- 
quered and  colonised  the  kingdoms  of  Northumberland 
and  East  Anglia,  reckoned  equal  then  to  one  third  of 
England,  and  had  held  them  for  several  generations, 
and  who  conquered  and  raled  over  all  England  for 
nearly  half  a  century  immediately  previous  to  its  final 
conquest  by  their  oavq  Norman  kinsmen.  The  spirit, 
character,  and  national  vigour  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
branch  of  this  people,  had  evidently  become  extinct 
under  the  influence  and  pressure  of  the  church  of 
Rome  upon  the  energies  of  the  human  mind.  This 
abject  state  of  the  mass  of  the  old  Christianised  Anglo- 
Saxons,  is  evident  from  the  trifling  resistance  they  made 
to  the  small  piratical  bands  of  Danes  or  Northmen 
who  infested  and  settled  on  their  coasts.    It  is  evident 


KINGS   OF   NOltWAY. 


9 


Chap.  I. 


that  the  people  had  neither  energy  to  fight,  nor  pro-  l^f^^^^ 
perty,  laws,  or  institutions  to  defend,  and  were  merely 
serfs  on  the  land  of  nobles,  or  of  the  church,  who  had 
nothing  to  lose  by  a  change  of  masters.  It  is  to  the 
renewal  of  the  original  institutions,  social  condition, 
and  spirit  of  Anglo-Saxon  society,  by  the  fresh  infusion 
of  these  Danish  conquerors  into  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  the  whole  population  in  the  11th  century  — 
and  not  to  the  social  state  of  the  forest  Germans  in 
the  1st  century  —  that  we  must  look- for  the  actual 
origin  of  our  national  institutions,  character,  and 
principles  of  society,  and  for  that  check  of  the  popular 
opinion  and  will  upon  arbitrary  rule  which  grew  up 
by  degrees,  shomng  itself  even  in  the  first  generation 
after  William  the  Conqueror,  and  which  slowly  but 
necessarily  produced  the  English  constitution,  laws, 
institutions,  and  character.  The  same  seed  was  no 
doubt  sown  by  the  old  Anglo-Saxons,  and  by  the 
Northmen — for  they  were  originally  the  same  people  ; 
but  the  seed  of  the  former  had  perished  under  Eo- 
mish  superstition  and  church  influence,  during  five 
centuries  in  which  the  mind  and  property  in  every 
country  were  subjugated  to  the  priesthood  whose 
home  was  at  Rome ;  and  the  seed  of  the  latter  flou- 
rished, because  it  was  fresh  from  a  land  in  which  all 
were  proprietors  with  interests  at  stake,  and  accus- 
tomed, although  in  a  very  rude  and  violent  way,  to 
take  a  part,  by  Things,  or  assemblies  of  the  people,  in 
all  the  acts  of  their  government. 

Some  German,  Anglo-American,  and  English  writers, 
with  a  silly  vanity,  and  a  kind  of  party  feeling,  claim 
a  pre-eminence  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  among  the 
European  people  of  our  times,  in  the  social,  moral, 
political,  and  religious  elements  of  society,  and  even 
in  physical  powers — in  intellect  and  in  arms.  This 
is  the  echo  of  a  bray  first  heard  in  the  forgotten  con- 
troversy about  the  authenticity  of  Ossian's  Poems. 


Chap.  I. 


10  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PTiELiM.    Pinkerton  contended   stoutly  for  the  natural  Intel- 

DISSERT.  ^  •' 

lectual  superiority  of  the  Gothic  over  the  Celtic  race, 
insisting  that  no  intellectual  achievement,  not  even 
the  almost  physical  achievement  of  the  conquest  of  a 
country  by  force  of  arms,  was  ever  accomplished  by 
Celts.  The  black  hair,  dark  eye,  and  dusky  skin  of 
the  small-sized  Celt^  were  considered  by  those  philo- 
sophers to  indicate  an  habitation  for  souls  less  gifted 
than  those  which  usually  dwell  under  the  yellow  hair, 
blue  eye,  and  fair  skin  of  the  bulky  Goth.  This 
conceit  has  been  revived  of  late  in  Germany,  and  in 
America;  and  people  talk  of  the  superiority  of  the 
Gothic,  Germanic,  or  Anglo-Saxon  race,  as  if  no  such 
people  had  ever  existed  as  the  Romans,  the  Spaniards, 
the  French  —  no  such  men  as  Caesar,  Buonaparte, 
Cicero,  Montesquieu,  Cervantes,  Ariosto,  Raphael, 
Michael  Angelo.  If  the  superiority  they  claim  were 
true,  it  would  be  found  not  to  belong  at  all  to  that 
branch  of  the  one  great  northern  race  which  is  called 
Teutonic,  Gothic,  Germanic,  or  Anglo-Saxon — for  that 
branch  in  England  was,  previous  to  the  settlements  of 
the  Danes  or  Northmen  in  the  10th  and  11th  cen- 
turies, and  is  at  this  day  throughout  all  Germany, 
morally  and  socially  degenerate,  and  all  distinct  and 
distinguishing  spirit  or  nationality  in  it  dead ;  but  to 
the  small  cognate  branch  of  the  Northmen  or  Danes, 
who,  between  the  9th  and  12th  centuries  brought 
their  paganism,  energy,  and  social  institutions,  to  bear 
against,  conquer,  mingle  with,  and  invigorate  the 
priest-ridden,  inert  descendants  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  It  was  not,  perhaps,  so  much  an  overwhelming 
number  of  these  Northmen,  as  the  new  spirit  they 
brought  with  them,  that  mixed  with  and  changed  the 
social  elements  of  the  countries  they  settled  in.  A 
spark  will  set  fire  to  a  city,  if  it  find  stuiF  to  kindle. 
This  stuff  was  in  human  nature  ;  and  these  Northmen, 
a  handful  as  they  were  of  mere  barbarians,  did  kindle 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  11 

it  with  their  spark  of  a  free  social  existence,  in  which    J^s^y^^, 

all  men  had  property  or  interests,  and  a  right  to  a      

voice  in  the  affairs  of  their  government  and  in  the 
enactment  of  their  laws.  It  must  be  admitted,  what- 
ever we  think  of  the  alleged  superiority  of  the  Teutonic 
race  over  the  Celtic  or  Slavonic,  that  this  Northern 
branch  has  been  more  influential  than  the  older  Anglo- 
Saxon  branch  of  their  common  race  on  the  state  of 
modern  society  in  Europe.  We  have  only  to  compare 
En<2:land  and  the  United  States  of  America  with 
Saxony,  Prussia,  Hanover,  or  any  country  calling 
itself  of  ancient  Germanic  or  Teutonic  descent,  to  be 
satisfied  that  from  whatever  quarter  civil,  religious, 
and  political  liberty,  independence  of  mind,  and  free- 
dom in  social  existence  may  have  come,  it  was  not 
from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  or  the  forests  of  G  ermany. 

The  social  condition,  institutions,  laws,  and  litera- 
ture of  this  vigorous,  influential  branch  of  the  race, 
have  been  too  much  overlooked  by  our  historians  and 
political  philosophers  ;  and  this  work  of  Snorro  Sturle- 
son  gives  us  very  different  impressions  of  this  branch, 
in  its  pagan  and  barbarous  state,  from  the  impressions 
which  the  contemporary  Anglo-Saxon  writers,  and  all 
our  historians  on  their  authority,  afford  us.  Let  us 
first  look  at  their  literature,  and  compare  it  with  that 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  of  the  same  ages. 

Our  early  historians,  from  the  Venerable  Bede  down- 
wards, however  accurate  in  the  events  and  dates  they 
record,  and  however  valuable  for  this  accuracy,  are 
undeniably  the  dullest  of  chroniclers.  They  were 
monks,  ignorant  of  the  world  beyond  their  convent 
walls,  recording  the  deaths  of  their  abbots,  the  legends 
of  their  founders,  and  the  miracles  of  their  sainted 
brethren,  as  the  most  important  events  in  history ; 
the  facts  being  stated  without  exercise  of  judgment, 
or  inquiry  after  truth,  the  fictions  with  a  dull  cre- 
dulity unenlivened  by  a  single  gleam  of  genius.    The 


Chap.  I. 


12  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM.     Historia  Ecclesiastica  venerabilis  Beda3,  and  Asser's 

DlSiSERP. 

Life  of  Alfred,  embrace  the  earlier  portion  of  the 
same  period,  viz.  the  latter  half  of  the  8th  century, 
of  which  the  first  Sagas  of  the  Heimskringia  of  Snorro 
Sturleson  treat.  The  Saxon  Chronicle  is  a  dry  record 
of  facts  and  dates,  ending  about  1155,  or  about  the 
same  period  (within  twenty  years)  at  which  the 
Heimskringia  ends.  Matthew  Paris  begins  his  history 
about  1057,  and  carries  it  down  to  about  1250,  which 
is  supposed  to  be  about  the  period  of  his  own  death. 
He  was  a  contemporary  of  Snorro,  who  was  born  in 
1178,  and  murdered  in  Iceland  in  1241.  Matthew 
Paris  was  no  unlettered,  obscure  monk.  He  was  ex- 
pressly selected  by  the  Pope,  in  1248,  for  a  mission 
to  Norway  to  settle  some  disputes  among  the  monks 
of  the  order  of  Saint  Benedict,  in  the  monastery  of 
Nidarholm,  orMonkholm,  in  the  diocese  of  Dronthiem; 
and  after  accomplishing  the  object  of  his  mission  he 
returned  to  his  monastery  at  St.  Albans.  It  is  not  to 
be  denied  that  all  this  connected  series  of  Anglo-Saxon 
and  Anglo-Norman  history,  from  the  dissolution  of  the 
Poman  empire  in  Britain  in  the  middle  of  the  5th 
century  down  to  the  middle  of  the  13th  century,  al- 
though composed  by  such  writers  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
population  as  Bede  and  Matthew  Paris,  men  the  most 
eminent  of  their  times  for  learning  and  literary  attain- 
ments among  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  their  descendants, 
is  of  the  most  unmitigated  dulness,  considered  as  lite- 
rary or  intellectual  production  ;  and  that  all  the  histori- 
cal compositions  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  branch  during 
those  eight  centuries,  either  in  England  or  in  Germany, 
are,  with  few  if  any  exceptions,  of  the  same  leaden 
character.  They  are  also,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Saxon  Chronicle,  and  of  the  translation  into  Anglo- 
Saxon  of  Bede  by  the  great  King  Alfred,  all,  or 
almost  all,  composed  in  the  Latin  tongue,  not  in  the 
native  national  tongue  of  the  country  in  which  they 


KINGS    OF    NOEWAY.  13 


were  composed  and  of  which  they  treat ;  —  composed 
not  for  the  people,  and  as  part  of  the  literature  of  the 
country,  but  for  a  tribe  of  cloistered  scholars  spread 
over  the  country,  yet  cut  off  by  their  profession  from 
all  community  of  interests,  feelings,  or  views,  with  the 
rest  of  the  nation  ;  a  class  centralised  in  Eome,  and  at 
home  only  in  her  church  establishment.  It  was  their 
literature,  not  the  literature  of  the  nation  around 
them,  that  these  writers  composed ;  and  its  influence, 
and  even  all  knowledge  of  its  existence,  was  confined 
to  their  own  class.  It  was  not  until  the  13th  century 
that  Yille  Hardouin  composed  his  Memoirs  in  the 
vernacular  tongue  of  his  countrymen ;  and  he  and 
Joinville,  who  wrote  about  the  end  of  the  13th  cen- 
tury, are  considered  the  earliest  historical  writers  who 
emancipated  history  from  the  Latinity  and  dulness  of 
the  monkish  chroniclers. 

When  we  turn  from  the  heavy  Latin  records  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  monks  to  the  accounts  given  of  them- 
selves in  their  own  language,  during  the  very  same 
ages,  by  the  Northmen^  we  are  startled  to  find  that 
these  wild  bloody  sea-kings,  worshippers  of  Thor, 
Odin,  and  Frigga,  and  known  to  us  only  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  monks  as  ferocious  pagans,  overthrow- 
ing kings,  destroying  churches  and  monasteries,  ra- 
vaging countries  with  fire  and  sword,  and  dragging 
the  wretched  inhabitants  whom  they  did  not  murder 
into  slavery,  surpassed  the  cognate  Saxon  people  they 
were  plundering  and  subduing,  in  literature  as  much 
as  in  arms — that  poetry,  history,  laws,  social  institu- 
tions and  usages,  many  of  the  useful  arts,  and  all 
the  elements  of  civilisation,  and  freedom,  were  exist- 
ing among  them  in  those  ages  in  much  greater  vigour 
than  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  themselves.  We  cling 
to  the  early  impression  given  us  by  Hume,  and  all 
our  best  historians,  upon  the  authority  of  our  monkish 
chroniclers,  that  these  pagan  Danes  or  Northmen  were 


PUELIM. 
DISSEKT. 

CuAl'.   I. 


Chap.  I. 


14  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,     barbarians  of  an  ahuost  brutal  i2:norance  and  ferocity, 

DISSERT.  ,         J.       .     .,.  .  ^       .  *^  ' 

without  a  spark  of  civinsation  or  literature.  We  see 
that  these  Vikings,  or  marauders  from  the  North,  were 
bloody,  daring,  capable  of  incredible  enterprises  and 
exertion,  and  of  incredible  outrages  and  cruelty  when 
successful — and  that  a  few  hundreds  of  them  landino- 
from  row-boats,  could  daunt  and  subdue  extensive 
tracts  of  country,  and  all  their  inhabitants ;  yet  we 
do  not  draw  the  natural  conclusion  from  these  facts, 
that  this  terrifying,  conquering  few  must  have  been 
superior  in  mental  power,  energy,  and  vigour  of 
action,  to  the  daunted,  conquered  many.  All  con- 
quests that  history  tells  of  will  be  found  to  resolve 
themselves  into  the  superior  mental  powers  of  the 
conquerors.  The  Eomans  conquered  nations  armed 
in  the  same  way  as  themselves,  by  superior  tactics, 
discipline,  military  arrangement,  and  perseverance ; 
that  is,  by  superior  mental  power  applied  to  the  same 
material  means.  The  moderns  in  America,  India,  and 
in  Europe,  conquer  by  the  superiority  of  fire-arms,  or 
of  what  belongs  to  the  efficiency  of  fire-arms,  in  a 
campaign.  This  too  is  the  superiority  of  mental 
power  in  the  invention,  construction,  or  application  of 
material  means.  The  Northmen,  armed  with  the  same 
weapons  as  the  inhabitants  of  England,  men  of  the 
same  physical  powers  as  the  Anglo-Saxons,  land  in 
small  piratical  bands,  altogether  insignificant  in  num- 
bers, on  the  coasts  of  England  and  France,  and  terrify, 
paralyse,  and  conquer,  as  the  Spaniards  with  their 
fire-arms  and  horses,  did  in  Mexico  or  Peru.  What 
is  this  but  the  superiority  of  mind,  of  intellectual 
power,  energy,  spirit,  over  the  inert  passive  Anglo- 
Saxon  inhabitants,  tamed  down  by  the  church  influ- 
ence and  superstition  of  five  centuries  into  a  state  of 
listless  existence,  without  spirit  or  feeling  as  a  nation, 
or  confidence  and  self-dependence  as  individuals,  and 
looking  for   aid  from   saints,   prayers,  and  miracles? 


KINGS   OF   NOKWAY.  15 

It  was  the  human  mind  in  a  state  of  barbarous  energy  p^elol 
and  action,  and  with  the  vitality  of  freedom,  conquer-  j^j 
ing  the  human  mind  in  a  state  of  slavish  torpidity 
and  superstitious  lethargy.  The  paucity  of  numbers 
of  these  Danes  or  Northmen  was  not  compensated  by 
any  superiority  of  the  weapons,  discipline,  or  tactics 
they  used;  but  they  were  men  fighting  to  acquire 
property  by  plunder  or  conquest,  who  had  laws  and 
institutions  which  secured  to  them  its  enjoyment ; 
and  they  had  as  opponents  only  a  population  of  serfs 
or  labourers,  with  no  property  in  the  soil,  no  interests 
to  fight  for,  nothing  to  lose  or  to  defend  but  what 
they  could  save  as  well  by  flying  or  submitting  as  by 
fighting. 

It  might  be  surmised  by  a  philosophic  reader  of  the 
history  of  those  times,  that  all  the  vigorous  action  and 
energy  of  mind  of  these  barbarous  Danes  or  North- 
men could  not  be  showing  itself  only  in  deeds  of  daring 
enterprise  abroad, — that  some  of  it  must  be  expending 
itself  at  home,  and  in  other  arts  and  uses  than  those 
of  a  predatory  warfare.  It  Avill  not,  at  least,  surprise 
such  a  reader  that  some  of  this  mental  power  was  ap- 
plied at  home  in  attempts,  however  rude,  at  history 
and  poetry  ;  but  he  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  those 
attempts  surpass,  both  in  quality  and  quantity,  all 
that  can  be  produced  of  Anglo-Saxon  hterature  during 
the  same  ages,  either  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  language 
or  in  the  Latin.  These  literary  attempts  also,  or,  to 
give  them  their  due  title,  this  body  of  literature,  is 
remarkably  distinguished  from  that  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  or  of  any  other  people  of  the  same  period,  by 
being  composed  entirely  in  the  native  national  tongue, 
and  intended  to  instruct  or  amuse  an  audience  of  the 
people ;  and  not  in  a  dead  language,  and  intended 
merely  for  the  perusal  of  an  educated  class  in  the 
monasteries.  With  the  exception  of  Theodoric  the 
Monk,  who  wrote  in  Latin  in  the  time  of  King  Swerrer, 


Ch; 


16  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

PRELIM,    viz.  between  1177  and  1202,  a  history  of  the  kinors  of 

DISSERT.  '  J  o 

Norway  down  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Sigurd  the 
Crusader  in  1130,  and  who  appears  to  have  been  a 
foreigner,  all  the  literary  attempts  among  this  northern 
branch  of  the  one  great  race,  during  the  five  centuries 
in  which  the  other  branch,  the  Teutonic  or  Anglo- 
Saxon,  was  confining  all  intellectual  communication 
in  history  or  poetry  to  Latin,  and  within  the  walls  of 
the  cloisters,  were  composed  in  the  vernacular  tongue 
of  the  country,  intelligible  to,  and  indeed  altogether 
addressed  to,  the  people  of  all  classes.  This  singular 
instance  in  Europe  of  a  national  literature  difi'used 
among  a  barbarous  and  rude  people,  who  had  not  even 
received  the  civilisation  which  accompanies  the  Chris- 
tian religion  under  every  form,  before  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  century,  who  were  pagans  in  short 
fully  five  hundred  years  after  every  other  part  of 
Europe  was,  with  the  exception  of  some  districts  per- 
haps on  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic,  fully  Christianised, 
has  not  been  sufiiciently  considered  by  historians  in 
estimating  the  influence  of  literature  on  national  mind, 
character,  and  social  arrangement.  To  the  influence 
of  this  rude  national  literature  we  probably  owe  much 
of  what  we  now  pride  ourselves  upon  as  the  noblest  in- 
heritance from  our  forefathers, — that  national  energy, 
activity,  independence  of  mind,  and  value  for  civil 
and  political  freedom,  which  distinguish  the  popu- 
lation of  England  from  that  of  all  other  countries, 
and  have  done  so  ever  since  the  admixture  of  the 
Northmen  with  the  old  Anglo-Saxons.  It  may  be 
said  that  the  influence  of  sagas  or  songs,  of  the  htera- 
ture,  such  as  it  may  be,  upon  the  spirit  and  character 
of  a  people,  is  overstated,  and  that  it  is  but  a  fond 
exaggeration,  at  any  rate,  to  dignify  w^ith  the  title  of 
a  national,  influential  literature,  the  rude  traditionary 
tales  and  ballads  of  a  barbarous  pagan  population. 
But  a  nation's  literature  is  its  breath  of  life,  without 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  17 


DISSERT. 


Chap.  I. 


which  a  nation  has  no  existence,  is  but  a  congregation  PR^^Lm. 
of  individuals.  However  low  the  literature  may  be 
in  its  intellectual  merit,  it  will  nationalise  the  living 
materials  of  a  population  into  a  mass  animated  with 
common  feeling.  During  the  five  centuries  in  which 
the  Northmen  were  riding  over  the  seas,  and  con- 
quering wheresoever  they  landed,  the  literature  of 
the  people  they  overcame  was  locked  up  in  a  dead 
lanofuaofe,  and  within  the  walls  of  monasteries.  But 
the  Northmen  had  a  literature  of  their  own,  rude  as 
it  was ;  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  had  none,  none  at 
least  belonging  to  tho  people.  The  following  list  will 
show  the  reader  that  in  the  five  centuries  between 
the  days  of  the  Venerable  Bede  and  those  of  Matthew 
Paris,  that  is  from  the  9th  to  the  end  of  the  13th 
century,  the  northern  branch  of  the  common  race 
was  not  destitute  of  intellectuality,  notwithstanding 
all  their  paganism  and  barbarism,  and  had  a  litera- 
ture adapted  to  their  national  spirit,  and  wonderfully 
extensive.  The  list  is  taken  from  that  given  by 
Thormod  Torfasus,  in  his  ''  Series  Dynastarum  et 
Regum  Danise,"  from  that  given  by  Miiller  in  his 
"  Sagabibliothek,"  and  from  that  of  Biorn  Haldorson. 
The  notes  on  the  date  and  contents  are  extracted 
chiefly  from  Miiller's  work.  The  words  historical  or 
fabulous  indicate  only  that  the  work  is  founded  on 
facts  apparently,  or  is  a  work  of  fiction. 


Adonius  Saga  (of  a  king  and  duke  in  Syria).      Fabulous. 
Alafieks  Saga  (of  a  son  of  a  King  Richard  of  England).      Fabulous. 
Amloda  Saga  (of  Hamlet,  freely  translated  from  Saxo).      Fabulous. 
Alexander  Mikla  Saga  (of  Alexander  the  Great,  translated  by  Bishop 

Brand  Johnson,  by  order  of  Hakon  Hakonson).     Historical. 
Andra  Rimur, — rhymes  of  or  concerning  Andreas. 
Ans  Saga  (of  An  Bueswinger).      My thologico-^ Historical. 
Asmundar  ok  Tryggve  Rimur, 

Arna  Biskups  Saga  (of  Bishop  Arne,  flourished  1260).     Historical. 
Arans  Saga  Hiorleifs  sonar  (of  Aran  son  of  Hiorleif).      Historical. 

VOL.  I.  C 


18  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM.      Amicus  ok  Amilius  Itimu?'  (ot  Amicus  and  Amilius  —  belongs  to  the 
■  story  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men).    Fabulous. 

Bandamanna  Saga  (of  the  Confederates — account  of  an  Icelandic  law 
process  in  the  eleventh  century).     Local  History. 

Bardar  Saga  SncBfelz  (of  Bard^  son  of  King  Dumo,  a  giant).    Fabulous. 

Barlaams  Saga. 

Befus  Saga  (of  Bevis^  son  of  an  English  Count  Ginar).      Fabulous. 

Biorns  Saga  Hitdcela  Kappa  (of  Biorn  of  Hitdale,  a  contemporary  of 
King  Olaf  the  Saint).     Historical. 

Blomstrvalla  Saga  (a  translation  from  the  German  by  Biorn,  in  Hakon 
Hakonson's  time.  The  name  Blomstrvalla  is  from  a  place  near 
Alexandria,  where  the  scene  is  laid). 

Bose  ok  Herauts  Saga  (of  Bose  and  Heraut).      Fabulous. 

Bua  Saga  (of  Bue  Andredsson).      Fabulous. 

Boerings  Saga  fagra  (of  the  beautiful  Bcering,  a  Saxon  king).  Fa- 
bulous. 

Brodhelga  Saga  (of  a  chief  who  died  about  974).     Historical. 

Brandkrossa  Thattr  (traits  of  Helge  Asbiornson  and  Helge  Droplauga's 
sons).     Fabulous. 

Bodva7's  Biai'ka  Saga.     Historical. 

Breta  Sogur  (Saga  of  Wales,  called  Breta  and  Bretland ;  and  the  parts 
of  England  occupied  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  called  Saxland  by 
the  Northmen.      This  is  from  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  work). 

Damusta  Saga  (of  a  Damusta  who  killed  Ion,  king  of  a  country  south 
of  France,  and  became  king  of  Greece).      Fabulous. 

Draplaugar  Sona  Saga  (of  the  sons  Helga  and  Grim  of  Draplaug). 
History  and  fable  mixed  ;   the  period,  the  tenth  century. 

Dinus  Saga  Dromblata  (of  Dionysius  the  Proud,  son  of  King  Ptolemy, 
in  Egypt). 

Drauma  Jons  Saga  (of  John  the  Dreamer  and  Earl  Henry).  Fa- 
bulous. 

Egils  Saga  Eindhendta  (of  Egil  the  One-handed,  and  Asmund).  Fa- 
bulous. 

Egils  Saga  Skallagrims  sonar  (of  Egil,  son  of  Skallagrim).  Historical ; 
period  from  the  middle  of  the  ninth  to  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century. 

Elis  Saga  (of  Elis  or  Julius  and  Rosamund).  Translated  from  the 
French,  1226,  by  Monk  Robert,  by  order  of  Hakon  Hakonson. 

Edda  Scsmunds  (the  elder  Edda).      Mythological. 

Edda  Snorros  (the  younger  Edda).     Mythological. 

Eric  Rauda  Saga  (of  Eric  Red,  who  discovered  Greenland,  and  Vin- 
land  or  America).  Historical ;  period  from  near  the  end  of  the 
ninth  to  beginning  of  the  tenth  century. 

Eyrhyggia  Saga  (of  Thorgrim,  whose  forefather,  Rolf,  came  from  the 
Isle  of  Moster  in  the  north  of  Norway,  and  first  planted  Iceland 
with  people  from  his  island  (eyrbiggia,  isle-settlers)  to  escape 
Harald  Haarfager).  Historical  _;  period  from  the  first  colonising 
Iceland  to  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY. 


19 


Erics  Saga  Vidforla  (of  Eric  the  Wanderer,  who  goes  in  search  of  the 

land  of  immortality.)      Mythological. 
Edwardar  Saga  hins  helga  (of  Saint  Edward  of  England). 

Fertrams  Saga  ok  Plato  (of  Fertram  and  Plato,  sons  of  King  Arthur). 
Fabulous. 

Finahoga  Ramma  Saga  (of  Finabog  the  Strong).  Fable  and  history, 
from  middle  of  tenth  to  eleventh  century. 

Flateyar  Annall  (the  Flato  Codex,  so  called  from  the  Isle  of  Flato  in 
Breidafiord  in  Iceland,  in  which  the  manuscript  was  discovered  in 
1650.  The  Annals  end  in  1395.  It  contains  many  Saga  tran- 
scribed into  it,  and  is  considered  a  most  important  historical  col- 
lection. The  MSS.  was  written  by  Ion  Thordsen,  priest,  and 
Magnus  Thorhalsen,  priest,  between  the  years  1387  and  1395). 
Historical. 

Fcereyinga  Saga  (of  the  Fsero  Islands).      Historical. 

Floamanna  Saga  (of  a  Thorgill  and  his  ancestors,  original  settlers  in 
Iceland,  and  of  his  adventures  in  Greenland.  Thorgill  died 
1033).      Historical. 

Flores  ok  Leo  (of  Flores  and  Leo). 

Florents  Saga  Fraka  Konungs  (of  Florent  King  of  the  Franks,  in- 
vented by  Master  Simon  in  Lyons). 

Fridthiofs  Saga  (of  Fridthiof  the  Bold).  This  beautiful  story  has 
been  the  groundwork  of  several  poetic  and  dramatic  imitations, 
of  which  Bishop  Tegner's,  in  Swedish,  has  been  translated  into 
English. 

Flores  Konungs  Saga  ok  Sona  hans  (of  King  Floris  and  his  sons). 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 


Chap.  I. 


Gibbons  Saga  (of  Gibbon,  son  of  the  French  king  William). 

Gaunga  Hrolfs  Saga  (of  Rolf  Ganger,  the  conqueror  of  Normandy). 
Historical. 

Gisla  Saga  Secos  sonar  (of  Gisle  the  son  of  Secos.  Events  of  the 
tenth  century  in  Iceland).      Historical. 

Gretters  Saga  sterka  (of  Gretter  the  Strong).  Adventures,  fabulous 
and  historical,  mixed,  of  Gretter  and  his  forefathers,  in  the  ninth, 
tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries. 

Guimars  Saga  (of  Guimar,  an  English  knight). 

Gudmundar  Biskups  Saga  (of  Bishop  Gudmund)  ;  being  part  of  the 
third  book  of  the  Sturlunga  Saga,  or  account  of  the  Sturlung 
family,  which  ends  1264,  and  of  which  the  first  books  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  written  1201. 

Grcenlandinga  Thattr  (events  in  Greenland  from  1122,  and  a  list  of 
nine  bishops  and  fifteen  churches).      Historical. 

Gunnars  Sagajifls  (of  Gunnar  the  Idiot).      Fabulous. 

Gunlaugs  Saga  Ormstungu  (of  Gunlaug'  the  Serpent-tongued).  His- 
torical;  the  period  about  IOO6. 

Gunnors  Saga  Thedbrand  bana  (of  Gunnor  who  killed  Thedbrand). 
Historical ;  supposed  to  be  written  about  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century. 

Gullthoris  Saga  (of  Gold  Thorro,  or  Torskfindinga  Saga).      Fabulous. 

Grims  ok  Hialmers  rimur  (rhymes  concerning  Grim  and  Hialmer). 

c  2 


20  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM.      Halfs  Saga    (of    Half,   who,    if  not   altogether  a  fabulous  personage, 

■  lived  about  the  eighth  century;  or  in  the  sixth,  according  to  others). 

Chap.  I.  Halfdanar  Saga  Brannfostfe  (of  Halfdan,  foster-son  of  Bran).  Fa- 
bulous. 

Halfdanar  Saga  Epstein  sonar  (of  Halfdan,  son  of  Eystein).    Fabulous. 

Haraldz  Saga  Hringshana  (of  Harald,  Avho  slew  Hring). 

Hrolf  Kraka  Saga  (a  collection  of  Sagas,  some  historical,  some  fabulous). 

Hemings  Saga  (of  Heming,  a  fabulous  personage  of  Olaf  the  Saint's 
time). 

Hervarar  Saga  (of  Hervar).     Mythological. 

Hialmthers  ok  Olvers  Saga  (of  Hialmther  and  Olver).     Fabulous. 

Hogne  ok  Hedins  Saga.      Mythological. 

Holmverra  Saga  (of  one  Hord).  Mixed  fable  and  historical  fact  re- 
garding Iceland. 

Hrafnkels  Goda  Saga.     Historical ;  of  Harald  Haarfager's  times. 

Hrims  ok  Tryggve  rimur. 

Hralf  Saga  Gotreks  sonar  (of  Hralf,   son  of  Gotrek).      Mythological. 

Hrolfs  Saga  Skugga  fifls  (of  Hrolf,  son  of  Skugga  the  Idiot). 

Hromundar  Saga  Grips  sonar.     Fabulous. 

Hungr-vaka  (the  Hunger-waking  is  the  name  of  a  Saga  of  the  Bishops 
of  Skalholt  down  to  1178;  the  author  supposing  it  would  raise 
an  appetite  for  more). 

Honse  Thoris  Saga  (of  Thorer  the  hen-merchant).      Historical. 

Hrafns  Saga  Swinhiornar  sonar  (of  Hrafn,  son  of  Swinbiorn). 

Hallfredar  Saga  Vandrceda  Skalldz  (of  Halfred  "  the  scald,  desperate 
or  difficult  to  deal  with,"  who  lived  in  King  Olaf  the  Saint's  time). 
Historical. 

Hakonar  Konungs  Saga  Hakonar  sonar  (of  King  Hakon  Hakonson, 
who  was  born  1203,  and  died  1274).  Historical;  by  Sturle  Thord- 
son,  a  contemporary. 

Hugo  Scaplars  Saga  (Hugo  of  the  Scapulary).      Fabulous. 

Hakonar  Saga  Hareks  sonar  (of  Hakon  the  son  of  Harek). 

Hakonar  Saga  Iverson  sonar  (of  Hakon  Iverson).      Historical. 

Haralds  Rimur  Kvingiarna  (rhymes  of  or  concerning  Harald  the 
Woman-lover.) 

Hermodar  Rimur  (rhymes  of  Hermod). 

Islandinga  Bok  Ara  Froda  (Book  of  Iceland  —  concerning  the  first  co- 
lonisation of  Iceland,  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  &c.,  usually 
called  Are  Erode  Schedse;   written  about  1120).      Historical. 

Isfirdinga  Saga  (of  a  division  of  Iceland  called  Isfirding).    Historical. 

Jarlmans  Saga  (of  Jarlman  and  Herman).      Fabulous. 

Illugo  Saga  Gridar  fostra  (of  lUugo,  foster-son  of  Grida).      Fabulous. 

Jokuls  Saga  Bue  sonar  (of  Jokul,  son  of  Bue).      Fabulous. 

Jomsvikinga  Saga  (of  the  Vikings  of  Jomsburg,  in  the  island  of 
Wollen).      Historical. 

Jans  Biskups  Saga  (of  John  the  Bishop,  viz.  Ion  Ogmundson,  who 
died  1121,  bishop  of  Skalholt).     Historical. 

Jvents  Saga.  Fabulous ;  translated  from  the  French  by  order  of 
Hakon  Hakonson. 

Ions  Saga  Leiksveins  (of  John  the  Juggler).      Fabulous. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


21 


Jonales  Rimur  (rhymes  of  Jonales). 

Ions  Saga  Baptistce  (of  John  the  Baptist). 

Ions  Saga  Gudspialla  mana  (of  Saint  John  the  Evangelist). 

Karlamagnus  Saga  (of  Charlemagne). 

Ketils  Saga  (of  Ketil  Hseng  and  Grim  Lodiskins).     Fable  and  history. 

Knytlinga  Saga  (of  the   Danish  kings   of  the   Canute  dynasty,  from 

Harald  Gormson  to  Canute  VII.,  supposed  to  be  by  Olaf  Thord- 

son,  who  died  1259).     Historical. 
Konrads  Saga  Keysara  sonar  (of  Konrad,  son  of  the  Emperor). 
Kormaks  Saga  (of  Kormak  the  Scald).      Fable  and  history. 
Kroka  Refs  Saga  (of  Ref  the  Cunning).      Fabulous. 
Klarus  Saga  Keysara  sonar  (of  Clarus,  son  of  the  Emperor).   Fabulous. 
Kotler  Draumr  (the  Dream  of  Cotla). 
Kristus  Saga  (of  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into   Iceland,  from 

981  to  1000).      Historical. 
Kirialax  Saga  (of  the  Emperor  Alexis,  viz.  Kurios  Alexis  ;  but  this  is 

a  fabulous  emperor). 
Kallinius  Rimur  (rhymes  of  Callinius). 
Kraks  Spa  (Prophecy  of  Krak). 

Landnama  Bok  (events  in  Iceland  from  the  original  settlement^  in  the 
ninth  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  ;  with  names  of  the  first 
settlers,  and  of  their  lands,  to  the  number  of  about  3000  names  of 
persons,  and  1400  of  places;  supposed  to  have  been  written  in 
the  last  half  of  the  thirteenth  century).     Historical. 

Langfidgatal  (series  of  dynasties  and  kings  in  the  North).      Historical. 

LaxdcBla  Saga  (of  the  descendants  of  Auda,  who  settled  in  Laxdale). 
Historical. 

Liosvetninga  Saga  (Lives  of  the  Descendants  of  Thorgier  and  Gud- 
mund,  and  their  own  Lives,  between  the  middle  of  the  tenth  and 
end  of  the  twelfth  century).  Historical ;  written  about  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century. 

Laurentius  Biskups  Saga  (of  Bishop  Laurence,  who  was  born  1267). 
Historical,  by  a  contemporary. 

Mabels  Sterku  Rimer  (rhymes  of  or  concerning  Mabel  the  Strong), 

Maria  Saga  (of  Mary,  viz.  the  Virgin). 

Margaretor  Saga  (of  Margaret  and  Sigurd,  in  Magnus  the  Good's  time). 

Magus  Jarls  Saga  (of  Earl  Magus,  or  Marus,  in  Saxland).      Fabulous, 

Mirmants  Saga  (of  Mirmant,  a  king  in  Sicily).     Fabulous. 

Magnus  Saga  Orkneya  Jarls  (of  Saint  Magnus,  Earl  of  Orkney,  who 

was  killed  1110).     Historical. 
Mottuls  Saga  (of  the  magic  cloak  at  the  court  of  King  Arthur). 

Nials   Saga   (of  Nial).     Historical ;   and   supposed   to   be  written   by 

Saemund  Erode,  in  the  11th  century. 
Nikulass  Saga  leikara  (of  Nicolas  the  Juggler,  son  of  King  Faustus  of 

Hungary).      Fabulous. 
Nitida  Frcegn  Saga  (of  the   celebrated   Nitida,   daughter  of  a  Frank 

king  Richard).      Fabulous. 
Nikulass  Saga  Erkshiskups  (of  Nicholas,  Archbishop  of  Lucca). 

c  3 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


22  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM.      (Erverodde  Saga  (of  Odde  the  Archer;  literally,  Arrow- Odde).      Fa- 

DISSERT.  bulouS. 

Chap.  I.      Olver  Rimur  (rhymes  of  Olver). 

Petrs  Saga  Postula  (of  Peter  the  Apostle). 
Partalopa  Saga. 
Polistutors  Rimur. 

Parcevals  Saga  (of  Parceval,  one  of  King  Arthur's  worthies).  Fahulous. 
Pals  Biskups  Saga  (of  Bishop   Paul,   the   seventh  bishop  of  Skalholt, 
who  died  in  1211;  supposed  by  a  contemporary).     Historical. 

Ragners  Saga  Lodbroker  (of  Ragner  Lodbrok).     History  with  fable. 
Reinalds  ok  Rosa  Rimur  (rhymes  of  Ronald  and  Rosa). 

Sigurdr  Saga   Thogla   (of  Sigurd  the   Silent,   son  of  King  Lodver  in 

Saxland).      Fabulous. 
Sigrgardz  Saga  frcekna  (of  a  king  of  Tartary,  Sigurd  the  Bold).      Fa- 
bulous. 
Saulus  Saga  ok  Nicanors  (of  Saul  and  Nicanor,  two  foster  brothers,  one 

of  Galatia,  and  one  of  Italy).      Fabulous. 
Sturlunga  Saga    (of  the   family   of  Sturle,    of  which  Snorro  Sturleson 

was   a   descendant,   from   the  beginning   of  the    1 2th   century  to 

]  284).     Historical. 
Storla  Stcsrka  Saga  (of  Storle  the  Strong).      Fabulous. 
Sveins  Rimur  Muk  sonar  (rhymes  of  Svein  the  Monk's  son). 
Sigurdar  Fots  Saga  (of  Sigurd  Foot). 
Skida  Rima  (rhyme  of  Skida). 
Sverris  Saga  (of  King    Swerrer,  from   11 77?  when   Snorro  Sturleson's 

Heimskringla  ends,  to  King  Swerrer's  death).      Historical. 
Stuffs    Thattr  (Traits   of  Stuff  the    Scald,   who  lived   in    the   time  of 

Harald  Sigurdson,  about  1050).      Historical. 
Skaldhelga  Rimur  (rhymes  of  the  Scald  Helga). 
Svarfdcela  Saga  (of  Thorstein,  who  first  settled  in  Svarfdal  in  Iceland; 

and  fabulous  adventures  of  his  successors).     History  and  fable. 
Samsonar  Saga  Fagra  (of  Samson  the  Fair).      Fabulous. 
Stiarna  Odda  Draumr  (Star  Odda,  viz.  the  Astrologer  Odda's  Dream). 

Thomas  Saga  Erkshiskups  (of  Archbishop  Thomas  of  Canterbury). 

Tyodels  Saga  Riddara  (of  the  knight  Tyodel.  He  could  transform 
himself  into  a  bear). 

Thidreks  Saga  af  Bern  (of  Dietric  of  Bern).  The  same  as  the  Ger- 
man story. 

Thordar  Hredu  Saga  (of  Thorder  the  Terrible,  who,  in  975,  left 
Norway,  and  settled  in  Iceland).     Historical. 

Thorer  Haliggs  Rimur. 

Thorsteins  Saga  Sidu  Halls  sonar  (of  Thorstein,  son  of  Sidu  Hall). 
Historical. 

Thorsteins  Saga  Vikings  sonar  (of  Thorstein  son  of  the  Viking).  Fa- 
bulous. 

Thormodar  Saga  Kalhrunar  Skalldz  (of  Thormod  Kalbrun  the  Scald). 
Historical. 

Thorsteins  Saga  Oxafots.     Fabulous. 


KINGS    OE   NORWAY. 


23 


Thorlak  Biskups  Saga  (of  Bishop  Thorlak).      Historical. 
Thorleif  Saga   Jarla  Skalldz   (of  Thorleif  the   Scald   of  the  Earls  of 
Orkney),     Historical. 


PRELIM. 

DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


Ulfars  Saga  Stcerka  ok  Onundar  Fagra  (of  Ulfar  the  Strong,  and 
Onund  the  Fair ;  the  one  became  a  king  in  Africa,  the  other  in 
Asia).     Fabulous. 

Vatsd(Ela  Saga  (of  Ketil  Thrumr,  his  son  Thorstein,  Ingimund  and 
Saemund,  his  grandsons,  who  settled  in  Vatsdal  in  Iceland).  His- 
torical. 

Valdemar's  Saga  (of  Valdemar,  son  of  King  Philip  of  Saxland). 

Valnaliots  Saga  (of  Valnaliot,  an  Icelander  ;  the  story  of  the  12th  cen- 
tury).    Historical. 

Victors  Saga  ok  Blaus  (of  Victor  and  Blaus).     Fabulous. 

Vigagleims  Saga  (of  Gleim,  son  of  Eyolf,  who  went  to  settle  in  Ice- 
land 922). '    Historical. 

Vilhialms  Saga  Siods  (of  William  of  the  Treasure,  a  son  of  King 
Richard  in  England).      Fabulous. 

Vilmundar  Saga  ( of  Vilmund  and  Hierande,  a  son  of  a  king  in  Frank- 
land).      Fabulous. 

Ulfs  Saga  Ugga  sonar  (of  Ulf  the  son  of  Ugga).      Fabulous. 

Ulfhams  Rimur  (Rhymes  of  Ulfham). 

Valvers  Thattr  (Traits  of  the  Life  of  Valver). 

Volsunga  Saga.     Mythological. 

Yugvars  Saga  Vidforla  (of  Yugvar  the  Far-travelled).  History  and 
fable. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  saga-manuscript*  now 
existing  has  been  written  before  the  14th  century,  how- 
ever old  the  saga  itself  may  be.  The  Flato  manuscript 
is  of  1395.    Those  supposed  to  have  been  written  in  the 


*  Fagurskinna,  Morkinskinna;,  Hrokkinskinna  — fair  skin,  dark  skin, 
wrinkled  skin  —  are  names  applied  by  Torfaeus  to  manuscripts  on  parch- 
ment, probably  to  designate,  when  he  resided  at  Stavangar  in  Norway,  to 
his  friend  and  correspondent  Arne  Magnussen  at  Copenhagen,  the  par- 
ticular skin  he  wanted  to  refer  to,  in  a  compendious  way  understood 
between  themselves.  It  seems  now  to  be  doubtful  which  MSS.  they 
meant  by  the  Morkinskinna  and  Hrokkinskinna.  Arne  Magnussen, 
whose  collection  of  manuscripts  is  so  often  quoted  under  the  name  of 
the  Arnse-Magnsei,  was  the  greatest  antiquary  who  never  wrote.  Although 
he  wrote  no  books,  his  judgment  and  opinions  are  known  from  notes, 
selections,  and  correspondence,  and  are  of  great  authority  at  this  day  in 
the  Saga  literature.  Torfaeus  consulted  him  in  his  researches,  which 
gives  great  weight  to  the  views  of  Torfaeus  on  many  points,  as  we 
have  in  them  the  combined  judgment  of  two  of  the  greatest  northern 
antiquaries. 

c  4 


Chap.  I. 


24  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

p?;ELTM.     i3tli  century  are  not  ascertained  to  be  so  on  better 

DISSERr.  'J  .  -»-         • 

data  than  the  appearance  and  handwritmg.  It  is 
known  that  in  the  12th  century  Are  Erode,  Saemund, 
and  others  began  to  take  the  sagas  out  of  the  tra- 
ditionary state,  and  fix  them  in  writing ;  but  none  of 
the  original  skins  appear  to  have  come  down  to  our 
times,  but  only  some  of  the  numerous  copies  of  them. 
Bishop  Miiller  shows  good  reasons  for  supposing  that 
before  Are  Frode's  time,  and  in  the  11th  century, 
sagas  were  committed  to  writing ;  but  if  we  consider 
the  scarcity  of  the  material  in  that  age — parchment 
of  the  classics,  even  in  Italy,  being  often  deleted,  to 
be  used  by  the  monks  for  their  writings — these  must 
have  been  very  few.  No  well-authenticated  saga  of 
ancient  date  in  Runic  is  extant,  if  such  ever  existed ; 
although  Runic  letters  occur  in  Gothic,  and  even  in 
Anglo-Saxon  manuscripts,  mixed  with  the  other  cha- 
racters. 

To  these  Torfaeus  adds,  —  Historical  Fragments 
concerning  Ivar  Yidfadme,  Hraerer  Staungraubang, 
Helgius  the  Acute,  and  the  Battle  of  Bravalla : 
also  the  Codex  Flateyensis,  as  above  noticed,  —  a 
manuscript  so  called  from  the  island  Flato,  on  the 
west  side  of  Iceland,  in  which  it  was  discovered, 
containing  the  genealogies  and  annals  of  the  Nor- 
wegian kings  and  chiefs :  also  a  manuscript  called 
by  him  The  Fair  Skin  —  Fagrskinnan  ;  being  a  bre- 
viary of  the  history  of  Norway,  or  chronological  com- 
pendium from  Half  dan  the  Black  to  Swerrer's  reign ; 
and  also  several  ancient  annals,  which,  being  without 
titles,  he  cannot  cite  in  his  catalogue.  Besides  these, 
the  following  works,  no  longer  extant  in  any  kno^vn 
manuscripts,  are  referred  to  in  the  ancient  histories, 
viz. :  The  history  of  Einar  the  son  of  Gisle,  who  killed 
Giafald,  one  of  the  court  of  King  Magnus  Barefoot, 
is  cited  in  the  end  of  the  ''  Life  of  Saint  John  Bishop 
of  Holen."     The  history  of  Sigurd  Cervus  is  cited  by 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  25 

Snorro  Sturleson  in  his  "  Life  of  Halfdan  the  Black."    ofslERT. 
The  life  of  Alfgeir  is  cited  in  the  "  History  of  Hoi-    ^'^j 
men."     The  history  of  Grim  the  son  of  Krop,  who 
killed  Eyda  the  son  of  Skegg  of  Midiiord,  is  men- 
tioned in  the  ''  Life  of  Gretter  the  Strong."      The 
life   of   Thorgils    the  son  of  Hall,   and   the   history 
of  the  people  of  Niardvik,  are  cited  in  the  "  History 
of  the  Laxdale  People."    The  "  Landnama  "  mentions 
histories  of  Bodmod,  of  Gerpis,  of  Grimelf,  and  the 
life  of  Thord  Getter.     The  same  work"  mentions  also 
the  history  of  the  Thorskfiord  people,  and  a  life  of 
Yibiorn,  who  was  one  of  the  original  settlers  in  Ice- 
land when  it  was  uninhabited.     The  history  of  the 
Sturlung  family  shows  that  formerly  there  were  extant 
a  history  of  the  Berserker  and  Yiking  Hraungrid, 
and  lives  of  Olaf  king  of  the  Lidmen   or  army,  of 
Hrok  the  Black,  and  of  Orm  the  Poet.     Snorro  appears 
to  have  read  a  history  of  the  Skioldung  family,  that 
is,  of  the  progenitors  of  the  Danish  dynasty.     The 
"  Life  of  Hrolf  Krak  "  cites  a  life  of  Thorer  the  Dog- 
footed,  and  a  life  of  Agnar  son  of  Hroar  king  of  Den- 
mark.    The  "  Life  of  Rolf  the  Walker*,  the  Conqueror 
of  Normandy,"  cites  a  history  of  the  Hiodnarg  people. 
The  history  of  Skiold  the  son  of  Dag,  and  of  Her- 
mann, is  cited  in  the  "  Life  of  lUug  Grid's  Foster- son." 
The  ''  Life  of  Bose  "  mentions  a  life  of  Sigurd  Hring. 
Mention  of  the  histories  of  Ulf,  son  of  Sebb,  and  of 
Earl  Kvik,  is  made  in  the  historical  relation  of  some 
incidents  by  the  scalds   of  Harald  Haarfager.     The 
"  History  of  the  Liosvatn  People"  cites  a  history  of  the 
people  of  Espholen.     The  writings  of  Are,  who  lived 


*  Hrolf  Gangr  appears  to  have  been  a  name  in  the  family ;  and  one 
of  the  forefathers  of  the  conqueror  of  Normandy  bore  it.  The  popular 
tale  of  his  being  so  stt)ut  or  corpulent  that  no  horse  could  carry  him, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  walk,  may  therefore  be  doubted ;  as  such  a  habit 
of  body  would  scarcely  be  consistent  with  the  personal  activity  of  great 
warriors  in  those  days. 


26 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


about  the  year  1117,  and  first  committed  to  writing 
the  Icelandic  compositions,  and  of  Saemund,  who 
flourished  about  the  year  1083,  and  had  studied  at 
universities  in  Germany  and  France,  and  of  Oddo  the 
Monk,  who  flourished  in  the  12th  century,  are  almost 
entirely  lost.  Kolskegg,  a  contemporary  of  Are,  and, 
like  him,  distinguished  by  the  surname  of  Frode  — 
the  wise,  or  the  much  knowing,  —  Brandus,  who  lived 
about  the  year  1163,  Eiric,  the  son  of  Oddo,  and  his 
contemporary  Karl,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Thringo, 
in  the  north  of  Iceland,  and  several  others,  appear  to 
have  been  collectors,  transcribers,  and  partly  con- 
tinuators  of  preceding  chronicles ;  and  all  these  flou- 
rished between  the  time  of  Bede  in  the  end  of  the 
7th  and  beginning  of  the  8th  century,  when  the  de- 
vastations of  these  piratical  Yikings  were  at  the  worst, 
and  the  time  of  Snorro  Sturleson  in  the  middle  of  the 
13th  century,  when  the  Viking  life  was  given  up, 
invasions  of  Northmen  even  under  their  kings  had 
ceased,  and  the  influence  of  Christianity  and  its  esta- 
blishments was  diffused. 

Now  we  have  here  a  vast  body  of  literature,  chiefly 
historical,  or  intended  to  be  so,  and  all  in  the  ver- 
nacular tongue  of  the  Northmen.  It  is  for  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  scholars  and  antiquaries  to  say,  whether  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  tongue,  or  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
Latin  together,  such  a  body  of  national  literature  was 
produced,  —  whether  such  intellectual  activity  existed 
between  the  days  of  the  Venerable  Bede,  our  earliest 
historian,  in  the  beginning  of  the  8th  century,  and 
the  days  of  Matthew  Paris,  the  contemporary  of 
Snorro  Sturleson,  in  the  first  half  of  the  13th? 
And  these  were  Pagans,  these  Northmen,  whether  in 
Denmark,  Norway,  or  Iceland,  for  more  than  half  of 
these  five  centuries!  This  body  of  literature  may 
surely  be  called  a  national  literature  ;  for  on  looking 
over  the  subjects  it  treats  of,  it  will  be  found  to  con- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  27 


Chap.  I. 


sist  almost  entirely  of  historical  events,    or  of  the    prelim. 

n    *       -I'      •  1         •%  n»i  1  1  T  DISSERT. 

achievements  of  individuals,  which,  whether  real  or 
fabulous,  were  calculated  to  sustain  a  national  spirit 
among  the  people  for  whom  they  were  composed ; 
and  scarcely  any  of  it  consists  of  the  legends  of  saints, 
of  homilies,  or  theological  treatises,  which  constitute 
the  greater  proportion  of  the  literature  of  other  coun- 
tries during  the  same  ages,  and  which  were  evidently 
composed  only  for  the  public  of  the  cloisters.  It  is 
distinguished  also  from  any  contemporary  literature, 
and  indeed  from  any  known  body  of  literature,  by 
the  peculiar  circumstance  of  its  having  been  for  many 
centuries,  and  until  the  beginning  of  the  12th  cen- 
tury, or  within  120  years  of  Snorro  Sturleson's  own 
times,  an  oral  not  a  written  literature,  and  composed 
and  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation  by 
word  of  mouth,  and  by  memory,  not  by  pen,  ink,  and 
parchment.  This  circumstance  may  aiFect  the  historical 
value  of  these  documents,  if  the  authenticity  of  what 
they  relate  be  not  supported  by  internal  or  collateral 
evidence,  but  does  not  affect  their  literary  value  as 
the  compositions,  during  five  centuries,  of  the  North- 
men, and  as  such  to  be  compared  with  the  composi- 
tions, during  the  same  five  centuries,  of  the  cognate 
Anglo-Saxon  people.  It  is  of  great  importance,  how- 
ever, to  examine  the  value,  as  historical  documents,  of 
these  compositions. 

The  early  history  of  every  people  can  only  have 
been  preserved  by  traditionary  stories,  songs,  ballads, 
until  the  age  when  they  were  fixed  by  writing.  The 
early  history  of  Rome,  for  many  centuries,  has  had  no 
other  foundation  than  such  a  saga-literature  as  this 
of  the  Northmen.  Homer,  whether  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  be  the  works  of  one  mind  or  of  several,  has 
had  traditionary  accounts  as  the  historical  foundation 
and  authority  for  the  events  and  personages  he  cele- 
brates.    Snorro   Sturleson  has  done  for  the  history 


28 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


of  the  Northmen  what  Livy  did  for  the  history  of 
the  Komans.  The  traditionary  works  of  the  pre- 
decessors of  Livy  in  his  historical  field,  the  sagas  of 
the  Romans,  have  unfortunately  not  reached  us.  The 
ancient  Roman  writers  themselves  regret  that  the 
songs  and  legends,  the  sagas  from  which  the  historical 
accounts  of  their  ancestors  are  derived,  and  which  it 
appears  from  two  passages  in  Cicero*  were  extant 
in  the  time  of  the  elder  Cato,  and,  like  the  sagas  of 
the  Northmen,  were  sung  or  recited  at  feasts,  had 
fallen  into  oblivion.  Such  documents  in  verse  or  prose 
are  common  to  the  early  history  of  every  people,  and 
on  such  and  on  the  similar  transmission  of  themby 
memory,  the  historical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
themselves  rest.  These  sagas  have  been  preserved 
among  the  Northmen,  or  at  least  have  not  perished  so 
entirely  but  that  the  sources  from  which  their  historian 
Snorro  drew  his  information  may  be  examined.  They 
constitute  the  body  of  literature  of  which  the  list  of 
sagas  given  above  is  an  imperfect  catalogue  —  imper- 
fect because  many  sagas,  songs,  or  other  compositions 
referred  to  in  those  which  are  extant  no  longer  exist, 
and  probably  never  had  been  taken  out  of  the  tradi- 
tionary state,  in  which  they  existed  then  as  matter 
of  memory,  and  been  fixed  in  writing.  If  we  consider 
the  scarcity  of  the  material  —  parchment  —  in  the 
middle  ages,  even  in  the  oldest  Christianised  countries 
of  Europe,  and  the  still  greater  scarcity  of  scribes,  and 
men  of  learning  and  leisure,  who  would  bestow  their 
time  and  material  on  any  subjects  but  monastic  legends 

*  Gravissimus  auctor  in  '  Originibus'  dixit  Cato,  morem  apud  majores 
hunc  epularum  fuisse,  ut  deinceps,  qui  accubarent,  canerent  ad  tibiam 
clarorum  virorum  laudes  atque  virtutes. —  Cicero,  Tusc.  Qucest.  iv.  3. 

Utinam  exstarent  ilia  carmina  quae  multis  saeculis  ante  suam  aetatem 
in  epulis  esse  cantitata  a  singulis  convivis  de  clarorum  virorum  laudibus 
in  '  Originibus '  scriptum  reliquit  Cato.  — ■  Cicer.  Brutus,  cap.  xix. 

See  on  this  subject  the  Preface  to  ''  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  by 
Thomas  Babington  Macaulay.     London:  Longman  and  Co.  1842." 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


29 


in  the  Latin  language,  we  must  wonder  that  so  many 
of  these  historical  tales  had  been  committed  to  writing 
in  Iceland ;  not  that  so  many  which  once  were  extant 
in  the  traditionary  state  have  not  been  preserved. 

Every  intelHgent  reader  of  English  history  who  is 
startled  at  this  view  of  the  comparative  literature  and 
intellectual  condition  of  the  two  branches,  the  pagan 
and  the  Christian,  of  the  one  great  northern  race, 
between  the  8th  and  the  13th  centuries,  will  desire 
information  on  the  following  points  ;  — Who  were 
the  scribes,  collectors,  or  compilers,  who  preceded 
Snorro  Sturleson  in  writing  down,  gathering,  or  re- 
ducing to  history,  those  traditionary  narratives  called 
Sagas  which  had  floated  down  on  the  memory,  in 
verse  or  in  prose,  from  generation  to  generation  ? 
Who  were  the  original  authors  of  these  compositions ; 
and  what  was  the  condition  of  the  class  of  men,  the 
Scalds,  who  composed  them  ?  What  were  the  peculiar 
circumstances  in  the  social  condition  of  the  Northmen 
in  those  ages,  by  which  such  a  class  as  the  Scalds  was 
kept  in  bread,  and  in  constant  employment  and  exer- 
tion among  them,  and  even  with  great  social  consider- 
ation; while  among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  a  cognate  branch 
of  the  same  people,  the  equivalent  class  of  the  Bards, 
Troubadours,  Minstrels,  Minnesingers,  was  either  ex- 
tinct, or  of  no  more  social  influence  than  that  of  the 
Court  Jesters  or  the  Jongleurs  ? 

Snorro  Sturleson  tells  us,  in  the  preface  to  his  work, 
that  "  the  priest  Are  hinn  Erode  (hinn  Erode  is  ap- 
plied to  several  writers,  and  means  the  Wise,  the 
Learned ;  le  Prud'homme  perhaps  of  the  Norman- 
Erench,  although  antiquaries  render  it  into  the  more 
assuming  Latin  appellative,  Polyhistor),  was  the  first 
man  in  Iceland  who  wrote  down  in  the  Norse  tongue 
both  old  and  new  narratives  of  events."  The  Land- 
namaSaga  (Liber  Originum  Islandiae),  which  treats  of 
the  first  occupation  of  Iceland  by  the  Norwegians,  and 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


30 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


of  their  descendants ;  the  Islindinga  Bok,  or  Book  of 
Iceland,  usually  quoted  by  the  title  of  the  Latin 
translation,  "  Schedse  Arii  Polyhistoris,"  which  is  an 
account  of  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  and  of 
other  affairs  in  Iceland,  and  of  the  judges  and  other 
considerable  personages  ;  and  the  Flateyiar  Annall, 
forming  part  of  the  important  manuscript  on  parch- 
ment quoted  so  often  by  northern  antiquaries  by  the 
name  of  the  Codex  Flateyensis, — are  works  of  Are 
still  extant.  The  Flateyiar  Annall  appears  to  have 
been  a  chronicle  begun  by  Are,  and  continued  by  his 
successors  in  his  parochial  charge.  It  does  not  appear 
that  any  writing  of  Are  upon  parchment  is  extant, 
and  his  labours  as  a  compiler  appear  to  be  known  from 
the  testimony  only  of  Snorro  Sturleson,  or  from  copies 
such  as  those  in  the  Codex  Flateyensis,  made  from  his 
writings.  Are  hinn  Frode  is  reckoned  by  Torfaeus  to 
have  been  born  about  the  year  1068,  and  to  have 
written  "  the  old  and  new  narratives  of  events,"  which 
Snorro  tells  us  he  did,  "  two  hundred  and  forty  years 
after  the  first  occupation  of  Iceland  by  the  Norwe- 
gians ;"  about  the  year  1117.  A  manuscript  of  Biorn 
of  Skardza,  which  Torfaeus  says  was  once  in  his  pos- 
session, speaks  of  an  older  compiler  than  Are.  Isleif, 
the  first  bishop  of  Iceland,  who  was  consecrated  by 
Adalbert,  archbishop  of  Bremen,  in  1056,  and  who 
died  in  1080,  is  stated  to  have  written  a  life  of  Harald 
Haarfager  and  his  successors,  down  to  Magnus  the 
Good,  who  died  about  1047,  compiled  from  the  cur- 
rent sagas ;  and  his  son.  Bishop  Gissur,  is  stated  to 
have  also  collected  and  written  down  histories  in  the 
common  tongue.  Are  hinn  Frode  was  brought  up  as 
a  foster-son  in  the  house  of  Teit,  another  son  of  this 
Bishop  Isleif,  and,  Torf^us  supposes,  may  have  used 
the  materials  collected  by  Isleif;  and  thus  the  labours 
of  the  two,  as  compilers  or  scribes  of  the  ancient 
sagas,  may  have  been  attributed  to  the  one  of  most 


KINGS    OF   NOKWAY.  31 


M. 
DISSERT. 


Chap.  I. 


celebrity.     The  celibacy  of  the  clers^y  appears  not  to    treli 
have  been  regarded  in  the  northern  countries  in  the 
11th  or  12th  centuries.     We  read  of  the  wives  and 
sons  of  priests  down  to  a  late  period ;  and  Bishop 
Isleif  was  not  singular  in  having  sons. 

Sasmund,  also  designated  as  hinn  Frode,  was  a  con- 
temporary of  Are.  He  was  born  in  1056,  and  after 
travelling  and  studying  in  Germany  and  France  re- 
turned to  Iceland,  and  settled  as  priest  of  the  parish 
of  Odda,  in  the  south  of  Iceland,  and  commenced 
the  Annals,  which  were  continued  by  his  successors 
in  the  clerical  charge  of  Odda,  and  are  hence  called 
"  Annales  Oddenses  "  by  the  northern  antiquaries.  The 
older  Edda,  of  which  the  Edda  of  Snorro  Sturleson 
is  but  an  epitome  for  explaining  the  mythological 
language  and  allusions  of  the  poetical  saga,  is  attri- 
buted to  him  ;  but  unfortunately  it  is  almost  entirely 
lost,  so  that  we  know  little  of  the  doctrines  or  esta- 
bhshments  of  the  ancient  Odin-worship.  Odd  the 
Monk,  who  lived  in  the  following  century,  refers  to 
an  historical  work  of  Sasmund,  which  is  also  lost. 
Sgemund  died  in  1133.  His  contemporary  Are  sur- 
vived him,  and  died  in  1148. 

Kolskegg,  also  hinn  Frode,  was  another  contem- 
porary of  Are,  whose  name  is  known  as  a  compiler, 
or  scribe,  but  his  works  are  not  extant. 

Brand,  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Holen  in  Iceland, 
ordained  1164,  and  who  died  1201,  was  also  a  diligent 
transcriber  of  sagas  from  the  memory  to  parchment. 
He  was  a  contemporary  of  Saxo  Grammaticus,  the 
Danish  historian.  Saxo  himself,  in  the  preface  to  his 
work,  gives  the  strongest  testimony  to  the  diligence 
and  importance  of  the  historical  researches  and  tradi- 
tional records  of  the  Icelanders.  "  Nor  is  the  industry 
of  the  Tylenses  (by  which  name  Saxo  designates  the 
people  of  Tyle,  Thule,  or  Iceland)  to  be  passed  over 
in  silence,  who,  from  the  sterility  of  their  native  soil, 


Chap.  I. 


32  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,  being  deprived  of  every  luxury  of  food,  exercise  a 
perpetual  sobriety,  and  turn  every  moment  of  their 
lives  to  the  cultivation  of  a  knowledge  of  the  affairs 
of  other  countries,  and,  compensating  their  poverty 
by  their  ingenuity,  consider  it  their  pleasure  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  transactions  of  other  nations,  and 
hold  it  to  be  not  less  honourable  to  record  the  vir- 
tues of  others  than  to  exhibit  their  own ;  and  whose 
treasures  in  the  records  of  historical  transactions  I 
have  carefully  consulted,  and  have  composed  no  small 
portion  of  the  present  work  according  to  their  rela- 
tions, not  despising  as  authorities  those  whom  I  know 
to  be  so  deeply  embued  with  a  knowledge  of  antiquity." 
Saxo  appears  to  have  had  access  to  many  sagas,  either 
in  manuscript,  or  in  viva  voce  relation,  which  are  not 
now  extant.  Theodoric  the  Monk,  a  contemporary 
also  of  Saxo,  who  flourished  about  the  year  1161,  and 
wrote  a  history  of  the  kings  of  Norway  in  Latin,  and 
almost  the  only  historical  work  of  the  middle  ages 
composed  in  that  language  in  Norway,  gives  a  similar 
testimony  to  the  great  amount  of  historical  knowledge 
among  the  Icelanders  transmitted  through  their  songs 
and  sagas.  The  causes  of  this  peculiar  turn  among 
the  Icelanders  will  be  inquired  into  afterwards. 

Eiric,  the  son  of  Odd,  wrote  a  history  of  King 
Harald  Gille's  sons,  Sigurd  and  Inge,  who  succeeded 
him,  as  joint  kings  of  Norway,  about  1136,  to  the 
death  of  each  of  them ;  and  gives  also  the  history  of 
King  Magnus  the  Blind,  and  of  Sigurd  Slembidegn. 
As  King  Inge  fell  in  battle  in  the  year  1161,  the 
work  of  Eiric  is  to  be  placed  after  that  date.  Karl, 
abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Thing  Isle  in  the  north  o\ 
Iceland,  who  was  ordained  in  1169,  and  died  in  1213, 
wrote  a  life  of  his  contemporary  King  Swerrer,  who 
reigned  from  1177  to  1202.  His  work  is  highly 
esteemed. 

Odd  the  Monk,  also  hinn  Erode,  was  next  to,  or 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


33 


perhaps  contemporary  with,  these  writers,  and  com-    ^fgl^}^^; 
posed  a  hfe  of  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson,   containing    ^"~^j 
circumstances  not  found  in  other  accounts  of  that 
reign ;  from  which  it  is  supposed  that  he  had  access 
to  sagas  not  now  extant. 

These  are  the  principal  historical  writers  who  com- 
piled or  composed  from  the  ancient  unwritten  sagas, 
between  the  days  of  Are  hinn  Frode  in  1117,  and  the 
days  of  Snorro  Sturleson  in  the  beginning  of  the  fol- 
lowing century.  In  these  hundred  or  hundred  and 
twenty  years  between  Are  and  Snorro,  the  great  mass 
of  literature  in  the  vernacular  tongue  committed  to 
parchment  proves  a  state  of  great  intellectual  activity 
among  these  Northmen.  It  is  not  the  literary  or  his- 
torical value,  or  the  true  dates  or  facts  of  these  tra- 
ditionary pieces  called  sagas,  written  down  for  the 
first  time  within  those  hundred  and  twenty  years, 
that  is  the  important  consideration  to  the  philosophical 
reader  of  history ;  but  the  extraordinary  fact,  that 
before  the  Norman  conquest  of  England  here  was  a 
people  but  just  Christianised,  whose  fathers  were 
pagans,  and  who  were  still  called  barbarians  by  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  yet  with  a  literature  in  their  own  lan- 
guage diffused  through  the  whole  social  body,  and 
living  in  the  common  tongue  and  mind  of  the  people. 
The  reader  would  almost  ask  if  the  Anglo-Saxons 
were  not  the  barbarians  of  the  two, —  a  people,  to  judge 
from  their  history,  without  national  feeling,  interests, 
or  spirit,  sunk  in  abject  superstition,  and  with  no 
literature  among  them  but  what  belonged  to  a  class 
of  men  bred  in  the  cloister,  using  only  the  Latin 
language,  and  communicating  only  with  each  other, 
or  with  Rome.  In  the  same  period  in  which  the 
intellectual  powers  of  the  pagan  or  newly  Christianised 
Northmen  were  at  work  in  the  national  tongue  upon 
subjects  of  popular  interest,  what  was  the  amount  of 
literary  production  among  the  Anglo-Saxons?    Gildas, 

VOL.  I.  D 


34  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    the  earliest  British  writer,  was  of  the  ancient  British, 
not  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people,  and  wrote  about  the 

Chap.  I.  ^^^^  ^^q^  ^^  ^  century  after  the  arrival  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  in  England.  Gildas  Albanius,  or  Saint  Gildas, 
preceded  him  by  about  a  century ;  and  both  wrote  in 
Latin,  not  in  the  British  or  the  Saxon  tongue.  The 
"  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Yenerabilis  Bedae"  was  written 
in  Latin  about  the  year  731;  and  King  Alfred  trans- 
lated this  work  of  the  Venerable  Bede  into  Anglo- 
Saxon  about  858,  or  by  other  account  some  time  be- 
tween 872  and  900.  Asser  wrote  "De  Yita  et  Rebus 
Gestis  Alfredi "  about  the  same  period,  for  he  died 
910.  Nennius,  and  his  annotator  Samuel,  are  placed 
by  Pinkerton  about  the  year  858.  Florence  of  Wor- 
cester wrote  about  1100;  Simeon  of  Durham  about 
1164 ;  Giraldus  Cambrensis  in  the  same  century. 
The  "  Saxon  Chronicle "  appears  to  have  been  the 
work  of  different  hands  from  the  11th  to  the  12th 
century.  Roger  of  Hovedon  wrote  about  1210; 
Matthew  Paris,  the  contemporary  of  Snorro  Sturleson, 
about  1240.  These  are  the  principal  writers  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons  referred  to  by  our  historians,  down 
to  the  age  of  Snorro  Sturleson  ;  and  they  all  wrote  in 
Latin,  not  in  the  language  of  the  people — the  Anglo- 
Saxon. 

This  separation  of  the  mind  and  language,  and  of 
the  intellectual  intluence  of  the  upper  educated  classes, 
from  the  uneducated  mass  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people, 
on  the  Continent  as  well  as  in  England,  by  the  barrier 
of  a  dead  language,  forms  the  great  distinctive  differ- 
ence between  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  Northmen ; 
and  to  it  may  be  traced  much  of  the  difference  in  the 
social  condition,  spirit,  and  character  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  Teutonic  or  Saxon  race  at  the  present 
day.  It  is  but  about  a  century  ago,  about  1740,  that 
this  barrier  was  broken  down  in  Germany,  and  men 
of  genius  or  science  began  to  write  for  the  German 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  35 


Chap.  I. 


mind  in  its  own  German  language.  With  the  excep-  ^fsl^^^jj^ 
tion  of  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible,  little  or  no- 
thing had  been  written  before  the  18th  century  for 
the  German  people  in  the  German  tongue.  That 
beautiful  language  itself  had  become  so  Latinised  by 
the  use  and  application  of  Latin  in  all  business  and 
intellectual  production  —  a  circumstance  which  both 
Goethe  and  Jean  Paul  Richter,  its  greatest  masters, 
deplore  —  that  it  was,  and  to  a  considerable  degree 
remains  in  the  present  times,  a  different  language  in 
writing  from  the  spoken  vernacular  tongue  of  the 
people  of  Germany.  They  have  to  acquire  it,  as,  in 
some  sort,  a  dead  language  to  them,  to  understand 
and  enter  into  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  their  own 
best  writers.  Their  Plat  Deutch,  the  spoken  tongue 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  does  not  merely  differ  as 
our  Scotch,  Yorkshire,  or  Somersetshire  dialects  differ 
from  English,  only  in  tone  of  voice,  pronunciation, 
and  in  the  use  of  a  few  obsolete  words ;  but  in  con- 
struction and  elements,  from  the  too  great  admixture 
of  foreign  elements  from  the  Latin  into  the  cultivated 
German.  A  striking  proof  of  this  is,  that  no  senti- 
ment, phrase,  popular  idea,  or  expression  from  the 
writings  of  Lessing,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Richter,  or  any 
other  great  German  writer,  is  ever  heard  among  the 
lower  classes  in  Germany,  the  peasants,  labouring 
people,  and  uneducated  masses ;  while,  with  us,  senti- 
ments, expressions,  phrases,  from  Shakspeare,  Pope, 
Burns,  Swift,  De  Foe,  Cobbett,  —  from  Cervantes,  Le 
Sage,  Moliere,  —  have  crept  into  common  use  and  ap- 
plication, as  proverbial  sayings  circulating  among  our 
totally  uneducated  classes,  who  certainly  never  read 
those  authors,  but  have  caught  up  i'rom  others  what 
is  good  and  natural,  because  the  thought  is  ex- 
pressed in  language  which  they  are  as  familiar  with 
as  the  writer  was  himself.  In  our  branch  of  the 
Saxon    race,    the    intellectuality    of    the    educated 

D  2 


36  CHRONICLE   OF    THE 

^?ol^L'^-    class  has  always  worked  downwards  tlirou2;li  a  Ian- 

DISSERT.  *'  .  /-»      T   • 

fifuaofe  common  to  all.     The  moral  influence  of  this 

Chap    I       ^       ^ 

uninterrupted  circulation  of  ideas  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest  is  very  striking  in  our  social  condition,  and 
in  that  of  all  the  people  descended  from  the  North- 
men, the  younger  branch  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon 
race.  Under  every  form  of  government,  whether 
despotic  as  in  Denmark,  aristocratic  as  in  Sweden, 
democratic  as  in  the  United  States,  or  mixed  as 
in  England,  they  are,  under  all  circumstances,  dis- 
tinguished from  the  other,  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
branch,  by  their  strong  nationality  and  distinct  na- 
tional characters.  What  is  this  but  the  diffusion  of 
one  mind,  one  spirit,  one  mode  of  thinking  and  doing, 
through  the  whole  social  body  of  each  of  these  groups, 
by  a  common  language  and  literature,  such  as  it  may 
be,  giving  one  shape  and  tone  to  the  mind  of  all  ? 
Turn  from  these  groups  of  the  European  population, 
and  look  at  the  nationality  or  national  character  of 
the  other  branch  of  the  race  —  or  rather  look  for  it. 
Where  is  it  ?  Have  Prussians,  Saxons,  Hanoverians, 
Hessians,  Baden-Badenians,  or  whatever  their  rulers 
call  them,  any  jot  of  this  national  feeling,  any  national 
existence  at  all?  Have  the  Germans  as  a  whole 
mass,  or  has  any  one  group  of  them,  any  national 
character  at  this  day,  any  common  feeling  among  all 
classes  upon  any  one  subject  ?  There  is  a  want  of 
that  circulation  of  the  same  mind  and  intelliofence 
through  all  classes  of  the  social  body,  differing  only  in 
degree,  not  in  kind,  in  the  most  educated  and  the 
most  ignorant,  and  of  that  circulation  and  interchange 
of  impressions  through  a  language  and  literature 
common  to  all,  which  alone  can  animate  a  population 
into  a  nation.  It  would  be  a  curious  subject  for  the 
political  philosopher  to  examine,  what  have  been  the 
effects  of  the  literature  of  a  people  upon  their  social 
condition.      English    literature    works    much    more 


KINGS    OF   NOKWAY.  37 

powerfully  upon  the  great  mass  of  the  English  people,    ^fs^^j^^- 

although  uneducated,  and  unable  to  receive  its  in-      

fluence  and  impression  direct,  than  German  literature, 
although  much  more  abundant,  works  upon  the  people 
of  Germany.  The  circulation  of  ideas  stops  there  at 
a  certain  class,  and  the  mass  remains  unmoved  by, 
impenetrable  to,  and  unintelligent  of  the  storms  that 
may  be  raging  on  the  surface  among  the  upper  edu- 
cated people.  The  literature  of  the  Northmen  in 
their  own  tongue  undoubtedly  kept  alive  that  com- 
mon feehno;  and  mind  —  that  common  sense  on  mat- 
ters  of  common  interest,  which  in  England  grew  up 
into  our  national  institutions.  They  had  a  literature 
of  their  own,  however  rude,  a  history  of  their  own, 
however  barbarous, — had  laws,  institutions,  and  social 
arrangements  of  their  OAvn ;  and  all  these  through  a 
common  language  influencing  and  forming  a  common 
mind  in  all ;  and  when  men,  or  the  children  of  men 
whose  minds  had  been  so  formed,  came  to  inhabit, 
and  not  merely  to  conquer,  but  to  colonise  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  surface  of  England,  we  may 
safely  assume  that  what  we  call  the  Anglo-Saxon  in- 
stitutions of  England,  and  the  spirit  and  character  on 
which  alone  free  institutions  can  rest,  were  the  na- 
tural productions  of  this  national  mind,  reared  by  the 
Northmen  in  England,  and  not  by  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

What  were  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  the  social 
condition  of  this  branch  of  the  Saxon  race,  which  kept 
alive  a  national  literature,  history,  spirit,  and  cha- 
racter, and  peculiar  laws  and  institutions,  while  all 
that  was  peculiar  to  or  distinctive  of  the  other  branch 
had  long  been  extinguished  in  Germany,  and  in  a 
great  measure  in  England  ?  This  question  can  only 
be  answered  by  looking  at  the  original  position  of  this 
northern  branch  of  the  same  stock,  on  the  European 
soil. 

The  race  of  men  who  under  Odin  established  them- 

D  3 


Chav.  I. 


38  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

^?o?.^l^.;    selves  in  the  countries  north  of  the  Baltic  were  un- 
doubteclly  of  Asiatic  origin.     The  date  of  this  inunda- 
tion may  have  been  400  years  before  or  400  years 
after  the  Christian  era  (antiquaries  have  their  theories; 
for  both  periods),  or  there  may  have  been  different 
Odins,  or  the  name  may  have  been  generic  and  applied 
to  all  great  conquerors  ;  and  the  causes,  as  well  as  the 
dates  of  this  vast  movement,  are  lost  in  the  night  of 
antiquity.     The  fact  itself  admits  of  no  doubt ;  for  it 
rests  not  only  on  the  concurrent  traditions  and  reli- 
gious belief  of  the  people,  but  upon  customs  retained 
by  them  to  a  period  far  within  the  pale  of  written 
history,   and  which    could    only  have    arisen  in  the 
country  from  which  they  came,  not  in  that  to  which 
they  had  come.     The  use,  for  instance,  of  horse-flesh 
could   never  have  been  an  original  indigenous  Scan- 
dinavian custom,  because  the  horse  there  is  an  animal 
too  valuable  and  scarce  ever  to  have  been  an  article  of 
food,  as  on  the  plains  of  Asia ;  but  doAvn  to  the  end  of 
the  11th   century  the  eating   of   horse-flesh   at  the 
religious  feasts,  as  commemorative  of  their  original 
country,  prevailed,  and  was  the  distinctive  token  of 
adhering  to  the  religion  of  Odin :  and  those  who  ate 
horse-flesh  were  punished  with  death  by  Saint  Olaf. 
A  plurality  of  Avives  also,  in  which  the  most  Christian 
of  their  kings  indulged  even  so  late  as  the  12th  cen- 
tury, was  not  a  custom  which,  in  a  poor  country  like 
Scandinavia,  was  likely  to  prevail,  and  appears  more 
probably  of  Asiatic  origin.     But  what  could  have  in- 
duced a  migrating  population  from  the  Tanais  (the 
Don),  on  which  traditionary  history  fixes  their  original 
seat,  after  reaching  the  southern  coasts  of  the  Baltic, 
to  have  turned  to  the  north  and  crossed  the  sea  to 
establish  themselves  on  the  bleak  inhospitable  rocks, 
and  in  the  severe  climate  of  Scandinavia,  instead  of 
overspreading  the  finer  countries  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Baltic?     The  political  causes  from  preoccupation. 


Chap,  I. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  39 

or  opposition  of  tribes  as  warlike  as  themselves,  can-    phelim. 

J-  i  1   •  •  1  DISSERT. 

not  now  be  known  from  any  historical  data  ;  but  from 
physical  data  we  may  conjecture  that  such  a  deviation 
from  what  we  would  consider  the  more  natural  run  of 
the  tide  of  a  population  seeking  a  living  in  new  homes, 
may  have  been  preferable  to  any  other  course  in  their 
social  condition.  AYe  make  a  wrong  estimate  of  the 
comparative  facilities  of  subsisting,  in  the  early  ages 
of  mankind,  in  the  northern  and  southern  countries  of 
Europe.  If  a  tribe  of  red-men  from  the  forests  of 
America  had  been  suddenly  transported  in  the  days 
of  Tacitus  to  the  forests  of  Europe  beyond  the  Rhine, 
where  would  they,  in  what  is  called  the  hunter  state, 
that  is,  depending  for  subsistence  on  the  spontaneous 
productions  of  nature,  have  found  in  the  greatest 
abundance  the  means  and  facilities  of  subsisting  them- 
selves ?  Unquestionably  on  the  Scandinavian  peninsula, 
intersected  by  narrow  inlets  of  the  sea  teeming  with 
fish,  by  lakes  and  rivers  rich  in  fish,  and  in  a  land 
covered  with,  forests,  in  which  not  only  all  the  wild 
animals  of  Europe  that  are  food  for  man  abound,  but 
from  the  numerous  lakes,  rivers,  ponds,  and  precipices 
in  this  hunting-field,  are  to  be  got  at  and  caught  with 
much  greater  facility  than  on  the  boundless  plains,  on 
which,  from  the  Ehine  to  the  Elbe,  and  from  the  Elbe 
to  the  Vistula,  or  to  the  steppes  of  Asia,  there  is 
scarcely  a  natural  feature  of  country  to  hem  in  a  herd 
of  wild  animals  in  their  flight,  and  turn  them  into 
any  particular  tract  or  direction  to  which  the  hunters 
could  resort  with  advantage,  and  at  which  they  could 
depend  on  meeting  their  prey.  At  this  day  Norway 
is  the  only  country  in  Europe  in  which  men  subsist  in 
considerable  comfort  in  what  may  be  called  the  hunter 
state,  —  that  is,  upon  the  natural  products  of  the 
earth  and  waters,  to  which  man  in  the  rudest  state 
must  have  equally  had  access  in  all  ages,  —  and  derive 
their  food,  fuel,  clothing,  and  lodging  from  the  forest, 

D  4 


Chap.  I. 


40  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    the  Fielde,  the  fiords,  and  rivers,  without  other  aid 

DISSERT.  ...T,T. 

from  agriculture,  or  the  arts  of  civilised  life,  than  is 
implied  in  keeping  herds  of  reindeer  in  a  half  tame 
state,  or  a  few  cows  upon  the  natural  herbage  of  the 
mountain  glens.  We,  in  our  state  of  society,  do  not 
consider  that  the  superior  fertility  of  the  warmer 
climes  and  better  soils  of  southern  countries,  adds 
nothing  to  the  means  of  subsistence  of  those  who  do 
not  live  upon  those  products  of  the  earth  which  are 
obtained  by  cultivation.  A  hermit  at  the  present  day 
could  subsist  himself,  from  the  unaided  bounty  of 
nature,  much  better  at  the  side  of  a  fiord  in  Norway, 
than  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  or  of  the  Tagus,  or 
of  the  Thames.  Iceland,  which  we  naturally  think 
the  last  abode  to  which  necessity  could  drive  settlers, 
had  in  its  abundance  of  fish,  wild  fowl,  and  pasturage 
for  sheep  and  cows,  although  the  country  never  pro- 
duced corn,  such  advantages  that  it  was  the  earliest 
of  modern  colonies,  and  was  a  favourite  resort  of 
emigrants  in  the  9th  century.  The  Irish  monk  Dicuil, 
who  wrote  in  825  his  work  ''  De  Mensura  Orbis 
Terras,"  published  by  C.  A.  Walckenaer  in  Paris  in 
1828,  says  that  for  100  years,  that  is  from  725,  the 
desire  for  the  hermit  life  had  led  many  Irish  clerks  to 
the  islands  to  the  north  of  the  British  sea,  which,  with 
a  fair  wind,  may  be  reached  in  two  days'  sail  from  the 
most  northerly  British  isles.  These  were  most  likely 
the  Feroe  Isles,  or  Westmann  Isles.  "  These  isles,"  he 
says,  "  from  the  creation  of  the  world  uninhabited,  and 
unnamed,  are  now,  in  825,  deserted  by  the  hermits 
on  account  of  the  northern  sea  robbers.  They  have 
innumerable  sheep,  and  many  sorts  of  sea  fowl." 
This  would  show  that  even  before  the  settlement  of 
the  Northmen  in  Iceland  about  825  (and  in  one  of 
the  sagas  it  is  said  the  first  settlers  found  in  the  West- 
mann Isles  books  and  other  articles  of  Irish  priests), 
the  facility  of  subsistence  had  drawn  some  individuals 
to  those  rocks  in  the  northern  ocean,  and  they  were 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  41 


Chap.  I. 


then  known  lands.  Sweden  had  a  still  stronger  attrac-  ^^f^^f 
tion  for  the  warlike  tribes  from  the  interior  of  Asia, 
who  were  pressing  upon  the  population  of  Europe 
south  of  the  Baltic,  and  which  has  been  overlooked 
by  the  historians  who  treat  of  the  migrations  of  man- 
kind from  or  to  the  north  in  the  rude  ages.  Sweden 
alone  had  iron  and  copper  for  arms  and  utensils  close 
to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and,  from  the  richness  of 
the  ores,  to  be  obtained  by  the  simplest  processes  of 
smelting.  This  natural  advantage  must,  in  those  ages, 
have  made  Sweden  a  rallying  point  for  the  Asiatic 
populations  coming  into  Europe  from  the  north  of 
Asia,  and  from  countries  destitute  of  the  useful  metals 
in  any  abundant  or  easily  obtained  supply.  To  them 
Sweden  was  a  Mexico  or  Peru,  or  rather  an  arsenal 
from  which  they  must  draw  their  weapons  before  they 
could  proceed  to  Germany.  This  circumstance  itself 
may  account  for  the  apparently  absurd  opinion  of  the 
swarms  of  Goths  who  invaded  Europe  having  come 
from  Scandinavia ;  and  for  the  apparently  absurd 
tradition  of  Odin,  or  the  Asiatics  invading  and  occu- 
pying Scandinavia  in  preference  to  the  more  genial 
countries  and  climes  to  the  south  of  the  Baltic ;  and 
for  the  historical  fact  of  a  considerable  trade  having 
existed,  from  the  most  remote  times,  between  Novo- 
gorod  and  Sweden,  and  of  which,  in  the  very  earliest 
ages,  Wisby,  in  the  Isle  of  Gotland,  was  the  entrepot 
or  meeting-place  for  the  exchange  of  products.  The 
great  importance  of  this  physical  advantage  of  Scan- 
dinavia in  the  abundance  of  copper  and  iron,  to  an 
ancient  warlike  population,  will  be  understood  best  if 
we  take  the  trouble  to  calculate  what  quantity  of  iron 
or  copper  must  have  been  expended  in  those  days  as 
ammunition,  in  missile  weapons,  by  an  ordinary  army 
in  an  ordinary  battle.  We  cannot  reckon  less  than  one 
ounce  weight  of  iron,  on  an  average,  to  each  arrow- 
head, from  twenty  to  twenty- four  dropj  or  an  ounce 


Cha 


42  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

PRELIM,    and  a  quarter  to  an  ounce  and  a  half,  beine:  considered 

DISSERT.  ^  .     1  5 

by  modern  archers  the  proper  weight  of  an  arrow; 
and  we  cannot  reckon  that  bowmen  took  the  field  Avith 
a  smaller  provision  than  four  sheaves  of  arrows,  or 
heads  for  that  number.  A  sheaf  of  twenty-four  arrows 
would  not  keep  a  bowman  above  ten  or  twelve  minutes ; 
and  in  an  ordinary  battle  of  three  or  four  hours,  allow- 
ing that  arrows  might  be  picked  up  and  shot  back  in 
great  numbers,  we  cannot  suppose  a  smaller  provision 
belonging  to  and  transported  with  a  body  of  bowmen 
than  ninety-six  rounds  each,  which,  for  a  body  of 
4000  men  only,  would  amount  to  above  fourteen  tons 
weiofht  of  iron  in  arrow-heads  alone.  For  castinsr 
spears  or  javelins,  of  which  in  ancient  armies,  as  in  the 
Roman,  more  use  was  made  than  of  the  bow,  we  can- 
not reckon  less  than  six  ounces  of  iron  to  the  spear 
head,  or  less  than  two  spears  to  each  man ;  and  this 
gives  us  nearly  two  tons  weight  more  of  iron  for 
4000  men  as  their  provision  in  this  kind  of  missile. 
Of  hand- weapons,  such  as  swords,  battleaxes,  halberds, 
spears,  and  of  defensive  armour,  such  as  head-jDieces 
and  shields,  which  every  man  had,  and  coats  of  mail 
or  armour,  which  some  had,  it  is  sufficient  to  observe 
that  all  of  it  would  be  lost  iron  to  the  troops  who  were 
defeated,  or  driven  from  the  field  of  battle  leaving 
their  killed  and  wounded  behind,  and  all  had  to  be 
replaced  by  a  fresh  supply  of  iron.  We  see  in  this 
great  amount  of  iron  or  bronze  arms,  to  be  provided 
and  transported  with  even  a  very  small  body  of  men 
in  ancient  times,  why  a  single  battle  was  almost  always 
decisive,  and  every  thing  was  staked  upon  the  issue 
of  a  single  day ;  and  we  see  why  defeat,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  battle  of  Hastings  and  many  others,  was  almost 
always  irrecoverable  with  the  same  troops.  They 
had  no  ammunition  on  the  losing  side  after  a  battle. 
We  may  judge  from  these  views  how  important  and 
valuable  it  must  have  been  for  an  invading  army  of 


Chap.  I. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  43 

Goths,  or  whatever  name  they  bore,  coming  from  prelim. 
Asia  to  Europe,  to  have  got  possession  of  Sweden ; 
so  important,  indeed,  that  it  is  reasonable  to  believe 
that  if  ever  an  Asiatic  people  invaded  Europe  north 
of  the  Carpathian  mountains,  the  invaders  would  first 
of  all  proceed  north  along  the  Vistula  and  other  rivers 
falling  into  the  Baltic,  and  put  themselves  in  com- 
munication, by  conquest  or  commerce,  with  the  coun- 
try which  supplied  their  ammunition,  and  would  then 
issue  armed  from  the  north,  and  break  into  the  Roman 
empire,  and  be  considered  as  a  people  coming  originally 
from  some  northern  hive.  Scandinavia  certainly  never 
had  food  for  more  human  beings  than  its  present  in- 
habitants, and  could  never  have  poured  out  the  suc- 
cessive multitudes  who,  by  all  accounts,  are  said  to 
have  come  in  from  the  north  upon  the  Roman  pro- 
vinces ;  but  in  this  view  it  is  likely  that  the  flood  of 
people  actually  did  pour  in  from  the  north,  to  which 
the  march  must  of  necessity  have  been  first  directed 
from  Asia.  It  may  be  objected  to  these  views,  that 
iron  or  metal  was  not  of  such  prime  necessity  as  we 
make  it  to  these  barbarians  in  their  warfare ;  that 
flint  or  other  stones  were  much  used  for  arrow-heads, 
and  that  we  find  such  commonly  in  museums,  and 
even  stones  that  have  evidently  been  intended  for 
javelins  or  battleaxes.  If  we  look,  however,  at  what 
exists  out  of  museums,  we  find  that  stones  which 
admit  of  being  chiselled,  sharpened,  or  brought  to  an 
edge  or  point  that  would  pierce  cloth,  leather,  or  any 
defensive  covering,  and  inflict  a  deadly  wound,  are 
among  the  rarest  productions.  Granite,  gneiss,  sand- 
stone, limestone,  all  rise  in  lumps  and  cubical  masses, 
scarcely  to  be  reduced  by  any  labour  or  skill  to  shapes 
suitable  for  a  spear  or  arrow  head.  Countries  of 
vast  extent  are  without  stone  at  all  near  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  and  many  without  such  a  kind  of  stone 
as  could  be  edged  or  pointed,  without  such  skill  and 


44  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    labour  as  would  make  stone  arrow-heads  more  scarce 

DISSERT.  Till!  1  /-w/. 

and  valuable  than  metal  ones.     Of  such  stones  as 

might  be  substituted  for  metal  in  missile  weapons  it 
happens,  singularly  enough,  that  Scandinavia  itself  is 
more  productive  than  any  part  of  the  north  of  Europe, 
if  we  except  perhaps  the  districts  of  England  abounding 
in  flint.  Our  ordinary  museum  arrow-heads  of  stone, 
or  what  our  country  people,  when  they  turn  them  up 
by  the  plough,  call  elf-bolts,  from  an  obscure  impres- 
sion that  they  do  not  belong  to  the  soil,  but  are,  from 
the  regularity  of  their  shape,  an  artificial  production, 
are  in  reality  the  organic  fossil  called  by  geologists 
the  Belemnite,  which,  tapering  to  a  point  at  both 
ends  from  regular  equally  poised  sides,  is,  in  its  natu- 
ral fossil  state,  an  arrow-head.  This  fossil,  and  the 
sharp  schists,  which  could  easily  be  formed  into 
effective  points  for  missile  weapons,  abound  particu- 
larly in  that  great  indenture  of  the  Norwegian  coast 
called  the  Skager  Rack,  and  in  the  middle  ages  called 
Yicken,  or  the  Wick,  or  Yik,  between  the  Naze  of 
Norway  and  the  Sound  or  the  coast  of  Jutland,  and 
from  Avhich  Pinkerton  conjectures  the  Scottish  Picts 
or  Victi,  if  they  were  a  Gothic  tribe,  originally  pro- 
ceeded. He  founds  his  conjecture  on  the  similarity 
of  name ;  and  the  Yikings  or  pirates  probably  derived 
their  name  from  this  district  of  Viken  in  which  they 
harboured,  and  for  the  obvious  reason  that  here  the 
means  of  replenishing  their  ships  mth  the  missile 
arms  of  the  age  abounded.  Hardsteinagriot,  or  small 
hard  stones,  appear  to  have  been  even  an  article  of 
export  at  a  very  early  date  from  Telemark,  and  to 
have  been  shipped  from  the  coast  to  which  they  were 
transported  in  quantities  of  1500  loads  at  a  time  from 
the  interior.*  Stones  for  throwing  by  hand  (the 
sling,  on  account  of  the  space  required  around  the 

*  Krafts  BeskryvelsCj  111.  154,    Kong  Sverrer's  Saga^  by  Jacob  Aal^ 
note  on  cap.  91. 


Chap.   I. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  45 

slinger,  seems  never  to  have  been  in  use)  were  so  im-  ^^|se\J5; 
portant  an  article  in  the  sea  fights  of  those  times,  that 
the  ships  of  war,  or  long- ships,  were  always  accom- 
panied on  the  viking  cruises  by  transports  or  ships 
of  burden,  to  carry  the  plunder,  clothes,  and  pro- 
visions, the  ships  of  war  being  loaded  with  arms  and 
stones.  We  find  two  transport  vessels  to  ten  ships  of 
war  in  the  Saga  of  Saint  Olaf,  as  the  number  with  him 
when  he  left  his  ships  of  war  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Humber,  after  a  long  viking  expedition,  and  returned 
to  Norway,  with  220  men,  in  his  two  transport  ships. 
Earl  Rognwald,  the  son  of  Koli,  invaded  Earl  Paul  in 
Orkney  with  six  ships  of  war,  five  boats  of  a  size  to 
cross  the  sea  from  Norway,  and  three  ships  of  bur- 
den*; and  in  all  their  expeditions  ships  of  burden 
were  required  in  some  proportion  to  the  ships  of  war, 
owing  to  the  great  stowage  necessary  for  their  wea- 
pons. In  the  Faereyinga  Saga,  in  which  the  exploits 
of  a  viking  J  called  Sigmund  Brestisson  are  related 
minutely,  we  read  of  his  walking  across  a  small  island 
on  the  Swedish  coast,  and  discovering  five  ships  of 
another  viking  at  anchor  on  the  opposite  side,  and  he 
returned  to  his  own  ships,  passed  the  whole  night  in 
landing  his  goods  and  plunder,  and  breaking  up  stones 
on  shore,  and  loading  his  vessel  with  them,  and  at 
daylight   he  went  to   attack  the   other   viking,  and 


*  Olaf  s  Saga^  cap.  27.     Orkneyinga  Saga. 

J  Viking  and  sea-king  are  not  synonymous^  although,  from  the  com- 
mon termination  in  king,  the  words  are  used,  even  by  our  historians, 
indiscriminately.  The  sea-king  was  a  man  connected  with  a  royal  race 
either  of  the  small  kings  of  the  country,  or  of  the  Haarfager  family,  and 
who  by  right  received  the  title  of  king  as  soon  as  he  took  the  command 
of  men,  although  only  of  a  single  ship's  crew,  and  without  having  any 
land  or  kingdom.  The  viking  is  a  word  not  connected  with  the  word 
kongr  or  king.  Vikings  were  merely  pirates,  alternately  peasants  and 
pirates,  deriving  the  name  of  viking  from  the  viks,  wicks,  or  inlets  on 
the  coast  in  which  they  harboured  with  their  long  ships  or  rowing 
galleys.  Every  sea-king  was  a  viking,  but  every  viking  was  not  a 
sea-king. 


Chap.  I. 


46  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

D?ssERT  c^P^^^^^  ^i^  vessels.  In  the  engagement  of  Earl  Paul 
in  Orkney  with  the  friends  of  Earl  Kognwald  he  re- 
fused the  assistance  of  men  from  Erling  of  Tankerness, 
off  which  place  the  battle  was  fought,  because  he  had 
as  many  men  as  could  find  room  to  fight  in  his  vessels, 
but  required  his  assistance  in  carrying  out  stones  from 
the  shore  to  his  vessels  as  long  as  the  enemy  would 
allow  it  to  be  done  safely.  Stones  could  not  be  trans- 
ported or  distributed  in  a  conflict  on  land ;  and  on  this 
account  the  Northmen  appear  generally  to  have  kept 
to  their  ships  in  their  battles,  and,  even  when  maraud- 
ing on  land,  to  have  had  their  ships  far  up  the  rivers 
to  retire  upon.  This  circumstance,  namely,  the  great 
bulk  in  stowage,  and  in  transport  by  land,  of  the  usual 
arms  of  the  age,  arrows,  casting  spears,  and  stones,  in 
any  considerable  quantities  for  a  body  of  troops,  and 
the  difiiculty  of  concentrating  stores  of  them  just  at 
the  spot  where  they  are  needed  on  land,  accounts  in 
a  great  measure  for  the  success  of  comparatively  small 
bodies  of  invaders  landins^  on  the  coasts  of  Eno^land, 
or  Normandy,  in  those  ages.  The  invaders  had  the 
advantage  of  a  supply  of  weapons  in  their  vessels  to 
retire  upon,  or  to  advance  from ;  while  their  opponents 
having  once  expended  what  they  carried  with  them, 
which  could  scarcely  exceed  the  consumption  in  one 
ordinary  battle  of  a  few  hours'  duration,  would  be 
totally  without  missiles. 

In  the  settlement  of  an  Asiatic  population  in  Scan- 
dinavia, which,  whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  or 
inducement  for  preferring  that  side  of  the  Baltic,  un- 
doubtedly did  take  place  at  an  unascertained  date, 
under  a  chief  called  Odin,  we  find  a  remarkable  dif- 
ference of  social  arrangement  —  and  a  sufiicient  cause 
for  it  —  from  that  social  arrangement  which  grew  up 
among  the  people  who  invaded  and  seized  on  the 
ancient  Roman  empire.  The  latter  were  settling  in 
countries  of  which  the  land  was  already  appropriated ; 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  47 

and  however  warlike  and  numerous  we  may  conceive    preltm. 

these  invaders  to  have   been,   they  could  be  but  a      

handful  compared  to  the  numbers  of  the  old  indige- 
nous inhabitants.  They  of  necessity,  and  for  security, 
had  to  settle  as  they  had  conquered,  in  military  array, 
under  local  military  chiefs  whose  banners  they  had 
followed  in  war,  and  were,  for  safety  and  mutual  pro- 
tection, obliged  to  rally  around  in  peace.  The  people 
had  the  same  military  duties  to  perform  to  their 
chiefs,  and  their  chiefs  to  the  general  commander  or 
king,  as  in  the  field.  They  were,  in  fact,  an  army  in 
cantonments  in  an  enemy's  country ;  and  this,  which 
is  the  feudal  system,  is  the  natural  system  of  social 
arrangement  in  every  country  taken  possession  of  by 
invaders  in  spite  of  the  indigenous  original  inhabit- 
ants. It  is  found  in  several  provinces  of  India,  in 
several  of  the  South  Sea  Islands,  and  wheresoever 
men  have  come  into  a  country  and  seized  the  land  of 
the  first  occupants.  But  where  there  is  none  to  dis- 
turb the  invaders  —  where  they  are  themselves  the 
first  occupants,  this  military  arrangement  is  unneces- 
sary, and  therefore  unnatural.  The  first  invaders  of 
Scandinavia  have  entered  into  an  unhinhabited  or  un- 
appropriated country,  or  if  inhabited,  it  has  been  by  a 
wandering  or  very  unwarlike  population,  like  the 
present  Laplanders,  or  the  Fenni  of  Tacitus.  We 
are  entitled  to  draw  this  conclusion  from  the  circum- 
stance that  these  invaders  did  not  occupy  and  sit 
down  in  the  country  feudally.  Each  man  possessed 
his  lot  of  land  without  reference  to  or  acknowledg- 
ment of  any  other  man,  —  without  any  local  chief  to 
whom  his  military  service  or  other  quit-rent  for  his 
land  was  due,  —  without  tenure  from,  or  duty  or 
obligation  to  any  superior,  real  or  fictitious,  except 
the  general  sovereign.  The  individual  settler  held  his 
land,  as  his  descendants  in  Norway  still  express  it,  by 
the  same  right  as  the  king  held  his  crown  —  by  udal 


Chap.  I. 


48  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

D^lsE^RT  ^igl^t,  or  adel,  —  that  is,  noble  right ;  subject  to  no 
feudal  burden,  servitude,  escheat,  or  forfeiture  to  a  su- 
perior from  any  feudal  casualty.  This  was  the  natural 
arrangement  of  society,  and  the  natural  principle  of 
possession  in  a  country  not  previously  occupied,  and 
in  which  the  settlers  had  consequently  no  reason  for 
submitting  to  feudal  obligations  and  to  a  military 
organisation.  When  the  very  same  people,  these  un- 
feudalised  Northmen,  came  to  conquer  and  settle  in 
Normandy,  in  a  country  appropriated  and  peopled, 
and  which  they  had  to  defend  as  well  as  to  invade 
and  occupy,  they  naturally  adopted  the  feudal  social 
arrangement  necessary  for  their  security,  and  main- 
tained it  in  all  its  rigour.  In  the  very  same  century 
the  kinsmen  of  the  same  chief,  Rolf  Ganger,  who  was 
conquering  and  feudally  occupying  Normandy,  came 
to  settle  in  Iceland,  where  they  had  no  occasion  for  the 
military  organisation  and  principle  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem in  the  unappropriated,  uninhabited  island ;  and 
they  occupied  it  not  feudally,  but,  as  their  ancestors 
had  occupied  the  mother  country  itself,  udally.  The 
udal  landowners,  although  exempt  from  all  feudal 
services,  exactions,  or  obligations  to  any  other  man 
as  their  local  chief,  or,  in  feudal  language,  the  supe- 
rior of  their  lands,  were  by  no  means  exempt  from 
services  or  taxes  to  the  king  or  general  chief,  who  was 
udal-born  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  or  of  a 
part  of  the  country,  and  was  acknowledged  by  the 
Thing  or  assembly  of  the  landowners  of  the  district. 
The  kingly  power  was  as  great  as  in  any  feudally 
constituted  country,  either  for  calling  out  men  and 
ships  for  his  military  expeditions  abroad  or  at  home, 
or  for  raising  taxes.  The  scatt  was  a  fixed  land-tax, 
paid  to  the  king  either  in  money  or  in  kind,  that  is, 
in  natural  products  of  the  land,  and  was  collected  by 
his  officers  yearly  in  each  district,  or  even  let  for  a 
proportion  of  the  amount  to  his  friends  or  lendermen 


Chap.  I. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  49 

during  life  or  pleasure.  This  class  of  lendermen  ap-  ^{^|^^^/ 
pears  to  have  been  the  nearest  approach  to  a  feudal 
class  in  their  social  arrangements  ;  but  the  lend  was  a 
temporary,  not  an  hereditary  holding,  and  was  not 
accompanied  by  any  feudal  privileges  or  baronial 
powers.  The  kings  also  received  in  their  royal  pro- 
gresses through  the  country  free  lodging  and  enter- 
tainment for  themselves  and  a  certain  fixed  number 
of  herdrnen^  that  is  a  court,  for  a  certain  fixed  number 
of  days  in  each  district.  All  the  most  minute  parti- 
culars of  the  supplies  which  each  farm  or  little  estate 
— for  each  little  farm  was  a  distinct  udal  estate — had 
to  furnish,  the  turns  in  which  each  locality  was  liable  to 
this  entertaining  of  the  king  and  court,  the  time  and 
numbers  of  the  court  followers  to  be  entertained,  were 
matters  of  fixed  law,  and  settled  by  the  Things  of  each 
district.  In  these  circuits  the  kings  assembled  the 
district  Things,  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  logman, 
who  appears  to  have  been  a  local  judge,  either  heredi- 
tary or  appointed  by  the  Thing,  settled  disputes  be- 
tween parties,  and  fixed  the  amount  of  money  com- 
pensation or  fine  to  be  paid  to  the  injured  party.  All 
ofi'ences  and  crimes,  from  the  murder  of  the  king 
himself  down  to  the  very  slightest  injury,  or  infraction 
of  law,  were  valued  and  compensated  for  in  money, 
and  divided  in  certain  portions  between  the  party  in- 
jured, (or  his  next  of  kin  if  he  was  murdered,)  and 
the  king.  The  oiFender  was  an  outlaw  until  he,  or  his 
friends  for  him,  had  paid  the  mulct  or  compensation, 
and  could  be  slain,  mthout  any  mulct  or  fine  for 
his  murder.  The  friends  of  the  injured  or  mur- 
dered party  could  refuse  to  accept  of  any  compensa- 
tion in  money,  but  could  lawfully  wait  an  opportunity, 
and  take  their  revenge  in  kind.  The  king  could  only 
remit  his  own  share  of  the  mulct,  but  not  that  of  the 
friends  of  the  murdered  party ;  and  not  to  revenge  an 
injury  received  and  not  compromised  by  a  compen- 

VOL.  I.  E 


50  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


Chap.  I. 


PRELIM,  sation,  appears  to  have  been  considered  highly  dis- 
honourable. The  revenues  of  the  kings  appear  to 
have  been  drawn,  in  some  considerable  proportion, 
from  this  source.  When  not  engaged  in  warfare  they 
appear  to  have  been  subsisted,  as  their  ordinary  mode 
of  living,  on  these  royal  circuits  or  progresses  through 
the  country.  The  kings  had  no  fixed  residence  or 
palace  in  Norway ;  but  had  estates  or  royal  domains 
in  every  district,  and  houses  on  them  in  which  they 
could  lodge  for  a  time,  and  receive  what  was  due  for 
their  entertainment  in  victuals  from  the  neighbour- 
hood ;  but  these  houses  appear  to  have  been  no  better 
mansions  than  the  houses  on  any  other  estates,  and 
the  kings  were  usually  lodged,  with  their  courts,  as 
well  as  subsisted,  by  the  landowners  or  bonders.  This 
usage  of  royal  progresses  for  the  subsistence  of  the 
royal  household  appears  to  have  been  introduced  into 
England  at  the  Norman,  or  rather  at  the  previous 
Danish  conquest ;  and  the  purveyance  for  it  was  a 
royal  right,  which  continued  to  be  exercised  do^vn  to 
the  end  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign. 

Before  the  introduction  or  general  diffusion  of 
writing,  it  is  evident  that  a  class  of  men  whose  sole 
occupation  was  to  commit  to  memory  and  preserve 
the  laws,  usages,  precedents,  and  details  of  all  those 
civil  affairs  and  rights,  and  to  whose  fidelity  in  re- 
lating former  transactions  imrlicit  confidence  could 
be  given,  must  of  necessity  have  existed  in  society  — 
must  have  been  in  every  locality ;  and  from  the  vast 
number  and  variety  of  details  in  every  district,  and 
the  great  interests  of  every  community,  must  have 
been  esteemed  and  recompensed  in  proportion  to  their 
importance  in  such  a  social  state.  .This  class  were 
the  scalds  —  the  men  who  were  the  living  books,  to 
be  referred  to  in  every  case  of  law  or  property  in 
which  the  past  had  to  be  applied  to  the  present. 
Before   the   introduction  of  Christianity,    and   with 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  ,  51 

Christianity  the  use  of  written  documents,  and  the    ^^^^yjj^r 
diffusion,  by  the  church  establishment,  of  writino;  in       , 

CJhap   I 

every  locality,  the  scald  must  have  been  among  the 
pagan  landowners  what  the  parish  priest  and  his 
written  record  were  in  the  older  Christianised  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  In  these  all  civil  affairs  were  in 
written  record  either  of  the  priest  or  the  lawyer; 
and  the  scalds,  in  these  Christianised  countries,  were 
merely  a  class  of  wandering  troubadours,  poets, 
story-tellers,  minnesingers,  entertained,  like  the 
dwarfs,  court-jesters,  or  jugglers,  by  the  great  barons 
at  their  castles,  for  the  entertainment  which  their 
songs,  music,  stories,  or  practical  jokes  might  afford. 
Here,  in  this  pagan  country,  they  were  a  necessary 
and  most  important  element  in  the  social  structure. 
They  were  the  registrars  of  events  affecting  property, 
and  filled  the  place  and  duty  of  the  lawyer  and  scribe 
in  a  society  in  which  law  was  very  complicated ;  the 
succession  to  property,  through  affinity  and  family 
connexion,  very  intricate,  from  the  want  of  family  sur- 
names, and  the  equal  rights  of  all  children  ;  and  in 
which  a  priesthood  like  that  of  the  church  of  Eome, 
spread  over  the  country,  and  acquainted  more  or  less 
with  letters,  the  art  of  writing,  and  law,  was  totally 
wanting.  The  scalds  of  the  north  disappeared  at 
once  when  Christian  priests  were  established  through 
the  country.  They  were  superseded  in  their  utility 
by  men  of  education,  who  knew  the  art  of  writing ; 
and  the  country  had  no  feudal  barons  to  maintain 
such  a  class  for  amusement  only.  We  hear  little  of 
the  scalds  after  the  first  half  of  the  12th  century ;  and 
they  are  not  quoted  at  all  in  the  portion  of  Magnus 
Erlingsson's  reign  given  by  Snorro  Sturleson  mthin 
the  12th  century. 

Besides  the  payment  of  scatt,  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  king's  household  in  the  royal  progresses,  the 
whole  body  of  the  landowners  were  bound  to  attend 

E  2 


Chap.  I. 


52  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

mssERi'  ^^^^  ^u^g  in  arms,  and  with  ships,  whenever  they  Avere 
called  upon  to  serve  him  either  at  home  or  abroad. 
The  king  appears,  in  fact,  not  only  not  to  have  wanted 
any  prerogative  that  feudal  sovereigns  of  the  same 
times  possessed,  but  to  have  had  much  more  power 
than  the  monarchs  of  other  countries.  The  middle 
link  in  the  feudal  system  —  a  nobility  of  great  crown 
vassals,  with  their  sub-vassals  subservient  to  them  as 
their  immediate  superiors,  not  to  the  crown  —  was 
wanting  in  the  social  structure  of  the  Northmen. 
The  kingly  power  working  directly  on  the  people  was 
more  efficient ;  and  the  kings,  and  all  who  had  a 
satisfactory  claim  to  the  royal  power,  had  no  difficulty 
in  calling  out  the  people  for  war  expeditions.  These 
expeditions,  often  merely  predatory  in  their  object, 
consisted  either  of  general  levies,  in  which  all  able- 
bodied  men,  and  all  ships,  great  and  small,  had  to 
follow  the  king ;  or  of  certain  quota  of  men,  ships,  and 
provisions,  furnished  by  certain  districts  according  to 
fixed  law.  All  the  country  along  the  coasts  of  Nor- 
way, and  as  far  back  into  the  land  "  as  the  salmon 
swims  up  the  rivers,"  was  divided  into  ship-districts 
or  ship-rathes ;  and  each  district  had  to  furnish  ships 
of  a  certain  size,  a  certain  number  of  men,  and  a  cer- 
tain equipment,  according  to  its  capability  ;  and  other 
inland  districts  had  to  furnish  cattle  and  other  pro- 
vision in  fixed  numbers.  This  arransrement  was  made 
by  Harald  Haarfager's  successor,  Hakon,  who  reigned 
between  933  and  961 ;  and  as  Hakon  was  the  foster- 
son  of  Athelstan  of  England,  and  was  bred  up  to 
manhood  in  his  court,  it  is  not  improbable  that  this 
arrangement  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  similar 
arrangement  made  by  King  Alfred  for  the  defence  of 
the  English  coast  against  the  Noi'thmen ;  unless  we 
take  the  still  more  probable  conjecture  that  Alfred 
borrowed  it  himself  from  them,  as  they  were  certainly 
in  all  naval  and  military  afikirs  superior  to  his  own 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  53 


people  in  that  age.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that,  for  the 
Northmen,  these  levies  for  predatory  expeditions  were 
by  no  means  unpopular  or  onerous.  ^'  To  gather 
property "  by  plundering  the  coasts  of  cattle,  meal, 
malt,  wool,  slaves,  was  a  favourite  summer  occupation. 
When  the  crops  were  in  the  ground  in  spring,  the 
whole  population,  which  was  seafaring  as  well  as 
agricultural  in  its  habits,  was  altogether  idle  until 
harvest;  and  the  great  success  in  amassing  booty,  as 
vikings,  on  the  coasts,  made  the  Leding,  as  it  was 
called,  a  favourite  service  during  many  reigns :  and  it 
appears  that  the  service  might  be  commuted  some- 
times into  a  war  tax,  when  it  was  inconvenient  to  go 
on  the  levy.  Every  man,  it  is  to  be  observed,  who 
went  upon  these  expeditions,  was  udal  born  to  some 
portion  of  land  at  home;  that  is,  had  certain  udal 
rights  of  succession,  or  of  purchase,  or  of  partition, 
connected  with  the  little  estate  of  the  family  of  which 
he  was  a  member.  All  these  complicated  rights  and 
interests  connecting  people  settled  in  Northumberland, 
East  Anglia,  Normandy,  or  Iceland,  with  landed  pro- 
perty situated  in  the  valleys  of  Norway,  required  a 
body  of  men,  like  the  scalds,  whose  sole  occupation 
was  to  record  in  their  stories  trustworthy  accounts, 
not  only  of  the  historical  events,  but  of  the  deaths, 
intermarriages,  pedigrees,  and  other  family  circum- 
stances of  every  person  of  any  note  engaged  in  them. 
We  find,  accordingly,  that  the  sagas  are,  as  justly  ob- 
served by  Pinkerton,  rather  memoirs  of  individuals 
than  history.  They  give  the  most  careful  heraldic 
tracing  of  every  man's  kin  they  speak  of,  because  he 
was  kin  to  landowners  at  home,  or  they  were  kin  to 
him.  In  such  a  social  state  we  may  believe  that  the 
class  of  scalds  were  not,  as  we  generally  suppose, 
merely  a  class  of  story-tellers,  poets,  or  harpers,  going 
about  with  gossip,  song,  and  music ;  but  were  inter- 
woven with  the  social  institutions  of  the  country,  and 

E  3 


PRICUM. 
DISSERT. 


Chap.  I. 


54  CHRONICLE    0¥   THE 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  I. 


PRELIM,    had  a  footino^  in  the  material  interests  of  the  people. 

DTSSF.RT.  p  ^  . 

To  take  an  interest  in  the  long-past  events  of  history 
is  an  acquired  intellectual  taste,  and  not  at  all  the 
natural  taste  of  the  unlettered  man.  When  we  are 
told  of  the  Norman  baron  in  his  castle-hall,  or  the 
Iceland  peasant's  family  around  their  winter  fireside 
in  their  turf-built  huts,  sitting  do^vn  in  the  10th  or 
11th  century  to  listen  to,  get  by  heart,  and  transmit 
to  the  rising  generation,  the  accounts  of  historical 
events  of  the  8th  or  9th  century  in  Norway,  England, 
or  Denmark,  we  feel  that,  however  pleasing  this  pic- 
ture may  be  to  the  fancy,  it  is  not  true  to  nature, — not 
consistent  with  the  human  mind  in  a  rude  illiterate 
social  state.  But  when  we  consider  the  nature  of 
the  peculiar  udal  principle  by  which  land  or  other 
property  was  transmitted  through  the  social  body  of 
these  Northmen,'we  see  at  once  a  sufficient  foundation 
in  the  material  interests,  both  of  the  baron  and  the 
peasant,  for  the  support  of  a  class  of  traditionary 
relators  of  past  events.  Every  person  in  every  expe- 
dition was  udal  born  to  something  at  home,  —  to  the 
kingdom,  or  to  a  little  farm ;  and  this  class  were  the 
recorders  of  the  vested  rights  of  individuals,  and  of 
family  alliances,  feuds,  or  other  interests,  when  written 
record  was  not  known.  For  many  generations  after 
the  first  Northmen  settled  in  England  or  Normandy, 
it  must,  from  the  uncertain  issue  of  their  hostilities 
with  the  indigenous  inhabitants,  have  been  matter  of 
deep  interest  to  every  individual  to  know  how  it  stood 
with  the  branch  of  the  family  in  possession  of  the 
piece  of  udal  land  in  the  mother-country  to  which  he 
also  was  udal  born,  that  is,  had  certain  eventual 
rights  of  succession ;  and  whether  to  return  and  claim 
their  share  of  any  succession  which  may  have  opened 
up  to  them  in  Norway  must  have  been  a  question 
with  settlers  in  Northumberland,  Normandy,  or  Ice- 
land, which  could  only  be  solved  by  the  information 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


55 


derived  from  such  a  class  as  the  scalds.  Before  the 
clergy  by  their  superior  learning  extinguished  the 
vocation  of  this  class  among  the  Northmen,  the  scalds 
appear  to  have  been  frequently  employed  also  as  con- 
fidential messengers  or  ambassadors ;  as,  for  instance, 
in  the  proposal  of  a  marriage  between  Olaf  King  of 
Norway  and  the  daughter  of  King  Olaf  of  Sweden,  and 
of  a  peace  between  the  two  countries  to  be  established 
by  this  alliance.  The  scalds,  by  their  profession,  could 
go  from  court  to  court  without  suspicion,  and  in  com- 
parative safety;  because,  being  generally  natives  of 
Iceland,  they  had  no  hereditary  family  feuds  with  the 
people  of  the  land,  no  private  vengeance  for  family 
injuries  to  apprehend;  and  being  usually  rewarded  by 
gifts  of  rings,  chains,  goblets,  and  such  trinkets,  they 
could,  without  exciting  suspicion,  carry  with  them 
the  tokens  by  which,  before  the  art  of  writing  was 
common  in  courts,  the  messenger  who  had  a  private 
errand  to  unfold  was  accredited.  When  kings  or 
great  people  met  in  those  ages  they  exchanged  gifts 
or  presents  with  each  other,  and  do  so  still  in  the 
East ;  and  the  original  object  of  this  custom  was  that 
each  should  have  tokens  known  to  the  other,  by  which 
any  bearer  afterwards  should  be  accredited  to  the 
original  owner  of  the  article  sent  with  him  in  token, 
and  even  the  amount  of  confidence  to  be  reposed  in 
him  denoted.  We,  with  writing  at  command,  can 
scarcely  perhaps  conceive  the  shifts  people  must  have 
been  put  to,  when  even  the  most  simple  communication 
or  order  had  to  be  delivered  viva  voce  to  some  agent 
who  was  to  carry  it,  and  who  had'  to  produce  some 
credential  or  token  that  he  was  to  be  believed.  Every 
act  of  importance  between  distant  parties  had  to  be 
transacted  by  tokens.  Our  wonder  and  incredulity 
cease  when  we  consider  that  such  a  class  of  men  as 
those  who  composed  and  transmitted  this  great  mass 
of  saga  literature  were  evidently  a  necessary  element 

E  4 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


56  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  I. 


d?sIert  ^^  ^^^^  social  arrangements  of  the  time  and  people,  and, 
together  with  their  literature  or  traditional  songs  and 
stories,  were  intimately  connected  with  the  material 
interests  of  all,  and  especially  of  those  who  had  pro- 
perty and  power.  They  were  not  merely  a  class  of 
wandering  poets,  troubadours,  or  story-tellers,  Hving 
by  the  amusement  they  afforded  to  a  people  in  a  state 
too  rude  to  support  any  class  for  their  intellectual 
amusement  only.  The  scalds,  who  appear  to  have 
been  divided  into  two  classes,  —  poets,  who  composed 
or  remembered  verses  in  which  events  were  related,  or 
chiefs  and  their  deeds  commemorated ;  and  saga-men, 
who  related  historical  accounts  of  transactions  past 
or  present, — were  usually,  it  may  be  said  exclusively, 
of  Iceland. 

It  is  usually  considered  a  wonderful  and  unaccount- 
able phenomenon  in  the  history  of  the  middle  ages, 
that  an  island  like  Iceland,  producing  neither  corn  nor 
wood,  situated  in  the  far  north,  ice-bound  in  part  even 
in  summer,  surrounded  by  a  wild  ocean,  and  shaken 
and  laid  waste  by  volcanic  fire,  should,  instead  of 
being  an  uninhabited  land,  or  inhabited  only  by  rude 
and  ignorant  fishermen,  have  been  the  centre  of  intel- 
ligence in  the  north,  and  of  an  extensive  literature. 
It  is  wonderful ;  but,  if  we  consider  the  causes,  the 
phenomenon  is  naturally  and  soberly  accounted  for. 
Iceland  was  originally  colonised  by  the  most  cultivated 
and  peaceful  of  the  mother  country ;  the  nobihty  and 
people  of  the  highest  civihsation  then  in  the  north 
flying,  in  the  9th  century,  and  especially  after  the 
battle  of  Hafursfiord,  from  what  they  considered  the 
tyranny  of  Harald  Haarfager,  and  the  oppression  of 
the  feudal  system  Avhich  he  was  attempting  to  esta- 
blish in  Norway.  It  was  an  emigration  from  principle. 
The  very  poor  and  ignorant,  and  those  who  merely 
sought  gain  mthout  any  higher  motive  for  their 
emigration,  could  not  go  to  Iceland;  because  a  suitable 


Chap.  I. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  57 

vessel,  with  the  necessary  outfit  and  stock,  could  only  J^^jEi^^j^^: 
be  afforded  by  people  of  the  highest  class,  and  they 
only  had  to  dread  the  jealousy  and  power  of  Haar- 
fager.  Their  friends,  retainers,  housemen,  and  ser- 
vants attached  to  their  families,  went  with  them ;  but 
the  landnammen^  the  origines  gentis,  were  the  sons 
and  brothers  of  the  nobles  and  kings,  as  they  were 
called,  who  from  the  very  same  cause,  the  dread  and 
hatred  of  Haarfager's  power,  went  out  to  plunder  and 
conquer  on  the  coasts  of  England  and  France.  At  the 
very  same  period  that  Eolf  Ganger  set  out  on  his  ex- 
pedition, which  ended  in  the  conquest  of  Normandy, 
one  of  his  brothers  sought  a  peaceful  asylum  in  the 
uninhabited  Iceland ;  and  the  more  peaceful  of  the 
higher  class  in  those  days  were,  we  may  presume, 
the  most  civilised  and  cultivated  of  their  age.  New 
England,  perhaps,  and  Iceland,  are  the  only  modern 
colonies  ever  founded  on  principle,  and  peopled  at 
first  from  higher  motives  than  want  or  gain ;  and  we 
see  at  this  day  a  lingering  spark  in  each  of  a  higher 
mind  than  in  populations  which  have  set  out  from  a 
lower  level.  The  original  settlers  in  Iceland  carried 
with  them  whatever  there  was  of  civilisation  or  in- 
telligence in  Norway;  and  for  some  generations  at 
least  were  free  from  the  internal  feuds,  and  always 
were  free  from  the  external  wars  and  depredations  on 
their  coasts,  which  kept  other  countries  in  a  state  of 
barbarism.  They  enjoyed  security  of  person  and  pro- 
perty. The  means  of  subsistence  in  Iceland  were  not 
so  very  different  from  the  means  in  Norway,  nor  of 
so  much  more  difficult  attainment,  as  might  on  a  hasty 
view  be  supposed.  The  south  coast  of  Iceland  is  not 
higher  north  than  the  country  about  Drontheim  fiord, 
and  the  most  northerly  part  is  barely  within  the 
Arctic  Circle.  A  large  proportion  of  the  population  of 
Norway  lived  in  those  ages,  and  live  now,  in  as  high  a 
latitude ;  and,  from  not  being  surrounded  by  the  ocean 


58  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


Chap.  I. 


pRj|LiM.  on  all  sides,  in  a  severer  climate  ;  and  under  the  local 
disadvantage,  from  the  shape  of  the  country,  that  the 
Fielde  or  mountain  ridges  in  Norway  approach  much 
closer  to  the  shore,  and  leave  much  less  flat  level  pas- 
ture land  between  them  and  the  sea  than  the  mountains 
of  Iceland.  The  cultivation  of  corn  is  as  much  out  of 
the  question  in  a  great  proportion  of  Norway  as  in 
Iceland.  The  people  in  the  upland  districts  of  every 
province  of  Norway,  and  almost  all  the  population 
north  of  the  Namsen  river,  draw  the  main  part  of 
their  subsistence  at  present  from  the  natural  products 
of  the  land  and  water,  —  the  pasture  for  their  cattle, 
and  the  fishing  in  the  rivers,  the  lakes,  and  the  sea. 
These  natural  products  are  as  abundant  in  Iceland  as 
in  Norway ;  and  the  butter,  cheese,  wool,  dried  meat, 
fish,  oil,  feathers,  skins,  the  wadmal  or  coarse  woollen 
cloth,  and  the  coarse  linen  spun  and  woven  in  their 
households,  would  be  more  in  demand,  more  readily 
exchangeable,  and  of  higher  comparative  value  in 
former  times,  than  such  Icelandic  products  are  now. 
With  the  surplus  of  such  articles  beyond  their  own 
consumpt  the  Icelanders  could  supply  their  own  most 
pressing  wants.  These  were  for  corn  and  wood  — 
articles  of  first  necessity,  which  did  not  admit  of  the 
population  sinking  into  indolence  and  apathy  in  pro- 
viding them.  An  intercourse  and  regular  trade  with 
England  and  Denmark  for  meal  and  malt,  and  with 
Norway  for  wood,  tools  of  metal,  and  other  neces- 
saries of  life,  must  have  existed  from  the  first  years 
of  the  colonisation  of  Iceland.  The  Icelanders  had 
consequently  from  the  first  more  easy  and  regular  op- 
portunities of  visiting  foreign  countries,  and  returning 
again  to  their  own,  than  the  natives  of  any  other 
country  in  the  north  in  those  ages.  They  appear  also 
to  have  traded  without  molestation,  and  never  to  have 
molested  others.  No  Icelandic  viking  is  mentioned  in 
the  sagas,  even  in  the  ages  when  a  viking  cruise  was 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


59 


deemed  an  honourable  occupation.  Iceland  men  are 
mentioned  in  the  sagas,  occasionally,  as  being  in  the 
service  of  vikings  of  Norway,  as  hired  men ;  but  no 
long-ship,  or  viking  belonging  to  Iceland,  is  men- 
tioned. The  necessity  of  trading  in  peace  across  the 
sea,  and  of  giving  no  pretext  for  capture  or  retalia- 
tion on  Iceland  vessels,  may  have  been  one  cause  for 
this  remarkable  abstinence  from  the  favourite  pursuit 
of  the  nobles  of  those  ages  in  other  northern  countries. 
It  could  not  be  from  the  cause  to  which  it  is  usually 
attributed,  the  want  of  wood  in  the  country  to  build 
long-ships.  The  Icelanders  had  to  buy  merchant  ships 
in  Norway  of  a  size  to  cross  the  sea,  and  appear  to 
have  had  them  in  abundance ;  and  the  same  class  of 
people  who  fitted  out  viking  expeditions  in  other 
countries  could  have  purchased  long- ships  as  easily  as 
ships  of  burden.  Their  neighbours  in  the  Feroe  Islands 
were  eqiially  destitute  of  wood ;  yet  they  had  a  very 
celebrated  viking,  Sigmund  Breestesen.  The  Orkney 
Islands  had  their  Swein,  a  renowned  viking,  so  late  as 
the  12th  century.  But  in  none  of  the  sagas  in  which 
the  exploits  of  these  vikings  are  related,  is  there  any 
mention  of  any  Iceland  viking  at  any  period.  The  fair 
inference  is,  that  the  men  who  emigrated  from  Nor- 
way to  Iceland,  and  who  were  of  the  class  and  had 
the  means  to  fit  out  long-ships  for  piracy,  were  men 
more  advanced  in  civilisation  and  intelligence,  and  of 
higher  principle,  than  men  of  the  same  class  in  that 
age  in  the  other  northern  countries.  In  all  the  sagas 
there  appears  a  kind  of  reluctance  to  dwell  upon  or 
approve  of  that  part  of  the  hero's  life  passed  in  viking 
expeditions,  or  in  ''gathering  property"  by  piracy. 
One  imagines,  at  least,  that  in  the  Saga  of  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson,  of  Olaf  the  Saint,  and  of  other  great  chiefs,  the 
saga-man  shows  a  disposition  to  hurry  over  this  part 
of  their  lives,  to  throw  it  into  the  years  of  extreme 
youth,  and  not  to  approve  himself  of  that  part  of  his 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I, 


Chap.  I. 


60  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

ms^sERT.  ^^1^-  The  comparatively  safe  intercourse  which  the 
Icelanders  undoubtedly  had  with  other  countries  gave 
them  a  higher  education,  that  is,  the  means  of  ac- 
quiring a  greater  stock  of  information  on  what  was 
doing  in  other  countries,  than  any  other  people  of 
those  times.  When  we  consider  that  these  Icelandic 
colonists  were  connected  by  the  udal  law  of  succes- 
sion with  the  principal  families  and  estates  in  Norway, 
Denmark,  Sweden,  England,  and  France,  and  were 
deeply  interested  in  the  conquests,  revolutions,  battles, 
or  changes  going  on,  and  in  which  their  friends  and 
relations  were  the  chief  actors,  we  can  understand 
that  an  historical  spirit  must  have  grown  up  in  such  a 
population  —  a  great  desire  to  know,  and  a  great 
talent  to  remember  and  relate.  Heritable  interests 
and  rights  of  families  in  Iceland  were  involved  in 
what  was  going  on  in  Normandy  and  Northumber- 
land as  much  as  in  Drontheim ;  and  the  consideration 
in  which  the  scald  or  saga-man  who  could  give  ac- 
counts of  such  events  was  held,  may  not  be  exagge- 
rated in  the  sagas.  In  a  community  of  such  colonists, 
the  class  of  scalds  remembering  and  relating  past  trans- 
actions was  an  essential  element,  and  must  have  been 
held  in  the  highest  honour.  To  return  home  to  Ice- 
land appears,  indeed,  to  have  been  the  end  which  the 
most  favoured  scald  at  the  courts  of  kings  proposed  to 
himself.  From  their  opportunities  of  visiting  various 
countries,  the  Icelandic  scalds  were  undoubtedly  the 
educated  men  of  the  times  when  books  did  not  in  any 
way  contribute  to  intelligence,  or  to  forming  the  mind ; 
but  only  extensive  intercourse  with  men,  and  the  in- 
formation gathered  from  it.  Having  by  the  lapse  of 
time  no  family  feuds  even  with  the  people  of  Norway, 
no  injuries,  national  or  private,  to  avenge  or  to  fear 
vengeance  for  from  others,  the  Icelander  could  travel 
through  other  countries  on  private  or  public  affairs 
with  a  degi^ee  of  personal  security  which  people  of  the 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


61 


highest   rank  and  power  belonging  to  the  country 
were  strangers  to  in  those  unhappy  ages.     This  ad- 
vantao^e  was  sufficient  of  itself  to  make  them  a  useful 
class  in  every  court.     They  were  not  only  neutral 
men  in  every  strife ;  but,  from  their  travel  and  expe- 
rience, men  of  intelhgence,  prudence,  and  safe  counsel, 
compared  to  men  of  no  intellectual  culture  at  all,*  and 
acquainted  only  with  arms  and  violence.     They  had 
also  the  advantage  of  speaking  in  its  greatest  purity 
what  was  the  court  language  in  Norway,   Sweden, 
Denmark,  England,  and  at  Kouen.*    The  moral  influ- 
ence which  the  scalds  enjoyed,  as  counsellors  and  per- 
sonal friends  and  advisers  of  many  of  the  kings,  may 
not  be  exaggerated  in  the  sagas ;  for  it  appears  to  be 
that  which  knowledge  and  education  would  naturally 
obtain  amidst  ignorance  and  barbarity.     The  class  of 
scalds  and  saga-men,  supported  by  intellectual  labour 
in  the  north  of  Europe,  may  not  have  been  very  nu- 
merous at  any  one  time ;  but  owing  to  the  favourable 
circumstances  peculiar  to  the  Icelanders,  the  profession 
centred  in  Iceland.     We  hear  of  no  scalds  of  any 
other  country,  not  even  of  Norway.     All  the  intellec- 
tual labour  of  the  kind  required  in  the  north  of  Europe 
was  derived  from  Iceland.     We  may  surely  reckon 
the  population  in  the  north  of  Europe  using  a  common 
tongue  in  those  times, — of  Scandinavia,  Denmark,  Jut- 
land, and  Schleswig ;  of  the  kingdom  of  Northumber- 
land, East  Anglia,  and  of  parts  of  Mercia ;  of  Normandy, 
in  some  proportion  of  its  inhabitants ;  of  the  Hebrides 
and  Isle  of  Man,  in  some  proportion ;  of  the  Orkney, 
Shetland,  and  Feroe  Islands,  altogether,  —  to  have 

*  Normandy^  it  is  to  be  always  remembered  in  reading  the  history 
of  those  ages,  was  conquered,  but  not  colonised,  as  Iceland  and  Northum- 
berland were  colonised,  by  the  introduction  of  a  totally  new  population, 
with  their  own  laws,  manners,  and  language.  In  Normandy,  so  early 
as  the  time  of  Duke  Richard,  the  second  in  descent  from  Rolf  Ganger, 
his  son  had  to  be  sent  to  Bayeux  to  acquire  the  pure  northern  language, 
it  having  been  already  corrupted  at  the  court. 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  I. 


62  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

D?lsERT    a^no^inted  to  two  millions  of  people.     Small  as  the 
^ demand  miff  lit  be  for  intellectual  gratification  anion  o^ 

Chap.  I.  ^  ^  ^ 

these  two  millions,  yet  they  were  scattered  over  coun- 
tries mdely  apart,  and  they  used  a  common  tongue, 
and  had  a  real  and  effective  relationship  of  families 
among  them  all ;  and  the  desire  for  news  of  what  was 
doing  in  other  lands,  and  for  narratives  of  events 
which  might  be  of  importance  in  their  family  interests, 
would  be  sufficient  to  give  an  impulse  to  such  a  small 
population  as  that  of  Iceland,  which  never  exceeded 
sixty  or  sixty-four  thousand  people,  to  give  employ- 
ment to  all  the  surplus  talent  of  such  a  population, 
and  to  keep  up  a  literary  tone,  if  it  may  be  so  called, 
of  the  public  mind  in  such  a  handful  of  people.  Men 
of  any  talent  would  naturally  endeavour  to  qualify 
themselves  for  that  profession  in  which  several,  and 
probably  a  considerable  number,  attained  distinction, 
wealth,  or  high  consideration.  It  was  better  than  the 
chance  of  advantage  from  embarking  as  a  private  sea- 
man or  man-at-arms  in  viking  forays  and  cruises 
under  a  sea-king ;  better  than  staying  at  home  tending- 
cattle,  cutting  peats,  making  hay,  and  catching  and 
curing  fish.  The  same  motives  operate  in  the  same 
way  at  this  day  in  the  social  economy  of  Iceland. 
The  youth  of  talents  and  ambition  study,  come  to  the 
university  of  Copenhagen,  become  often  men  of  very 
great  attainments  and  learning,  and  with  as  few 
chances  or  examples  before  them  of  substantial  re- 
ward for  their  labours  as  the  scalds,  their  prede- 
cessors, could  have  had.  The  impulse  to  mind  in 
any  community  being  once  given,  either  by  accidental 
or  physical  circumstances,  the  movement  in  the  same 
direction  goes  on,  and  seems  to  be  permanent — never 
to  cease.  The  perpetuity  of  intellectual  movement, 
of  the  direction  of  mind  and  mental  energy  in  the 
same  way,  even  when  laws,  government,  and  all  social 
arrangements,  and  even  religion  itself,  are  altered, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  63 


Chap.  I. 


and  the  old  forms  not  even  remembered,  is  one  of  the  p'^elim. 
most  singular  and  interesting  of  the  phenomena  in 
the  nature  of  man.  It  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  Ice- 
land. The  Icelandic  youth  prepare  themselves  now 
for  a  learned  profession,  as  the  scalds  did  800  years 
ago,  exactly  from  the  same  intellectual  impulse,  al- 
though in  a  different  field ;  and  the  movement  of  the 
public  mind  towards  intellectual  occupation  appears 
to  have  remained  in  this  small  community  unchanged, 
undiminished,  and  only  less  visible  because  it  is  not 
now  the  only  community  in  the  north  with  the  same 
movement.  The  continued  tendency  of  mind  in  Ice- 
land to  literary  pursuits  appears  when  we  compare 
them,  in  numbers  not  exceeding  at  present  56,000 
individuals,  with  any  equal  number  of  the  British 
population.  The  Icelanders  had  a  printing-press 
among  them  in  the  first  half  of  the  16th  century; 
and  many  works  in  Latin  and  in  Icelandic  have  been 
printed  at  Skalholt,  Holen,  and  other  places.  The 
counties  of  Orkney  and  Shetland,  with  an  equal  popu- 
lation,— of  Caithness,  Sutherland,  Ross,  with  probably 
double  the  population, — have  not  at  this  day  any  such 
intellectual  movement,  or  any  press  that  could  print 
a  book,  or  any  book  produced  within  themselves  to 
print.  The  whole  Celtic  population  in  Scotland,  since 
the  beginning  of  time,  never  produced  in  their  lan- 
guage a  tithe  of  the  hterature  that  has  been  composed 
and  printed  in  Icelandic  by  the  Icelanders  for  their 
own  use  within  this  century.  The  modern  literature 
of  Iceland,  or  even  its  saga  literature,  may  not  be  con- 
sidered by  the  critic  of  a  very  high  class  or  value,  or 
of  merit  in  itself;  but,  in  judging  of  the  intellectuality 
of  a  people,  the  philosopher  will  regard  its  amount 
and  diffusion  as  of  much  more  importance  than  its 
quahty.  That  belongs  to  the  author,  and  measures 
merely  the  genius  and  talents  of  the  individual :  the 
amount  and  diffusion  measure  the  intellectual  con- 


64 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


Chap.  I. 


ms^ERT.  dition  of  the  society.  Apply  this  measure  to  any^ 
town  or  county  in  Great  Britain  of  56,000  inhabitants, 
and  we  will  find  little  reason  to  boast  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced intellectual  condition  among  us  than  that 
which  the  Icelanders  appear  to  retain  at  this  day  from 
bygone  times,  when  an  intellectual  character  was 
impressed  on  the  public  mind  in  their  small  commu- 
nity by  the  scalds ;  and  little  reason  to  believe  that 
the  monkish  historians  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  in  the 
same  ages  in  which  the  scalds  flourished,  have  left 
more  deep  or  influential  traces  of  their  literature  in 
the  parts  of  Europe  in  which  they  were  the  only  men 
engaged  in  those  ages  in  intellectual  occupation,  than 
the  scalds  have  done  in  the  narrow  circle  in  which 
alone  they  could  have  influence  on  posterity. 

In  these  observations  on  the  saga  literature,  nothing 
is  said  of  or  allowed  for  the  Runic  writing  inscribed 
on  rocks,  monumental  stones,  wooden  staves,  drinking 
cups  of  horn  or  metal,  arms,  or  ornaments,  for  which 
at  one  period  a  high  antiquity  was  claimed.  It  seems 
to  be  now  admitted  that  a  Runic  character,  apparently 
borrowed  from  the  Gothic  and  Roman,  and  adapted 
to  the  material  on  which  it  was  usually  cut,  viz.  hard 
stone  or  wood,  by  converting  all  the  curves  of  the 
letters  into  straight  lines  for  the  facility  of  cutting, 
has  existed  from  a  very  early  age  among  the  North- 
men. It  would,  indeed,  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  an 
intelligent  people  roaming  over  the  world,  who  had 
appeared  in  the  Mediterranean  in  the  days  of 
Charlemagne,  and  had  a  regular  body  of  troops,  the 
VaBringer,  in  the  pay  of  the  Greek  Emperors  at  Con- 
stantinople, should  not  have  adopted,  or  imitated, 
what  would  be  useful  at  home,  as  far  as  applicable  to 
their  means.  This  appears  to  have  been  precisely  the 
extent  to  which  Runic  writing  was  applied.  From  want 
of  means  to  write, — that  is,  the  want  of  the  parchment, 
paper,  ink,  and  writing  tools,  —  the  writing  in  Runic 


Chap.  I. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  65 

was  almost  entirely  confined  to  short  monumental  ^fj^^^^j^- 
inscriptions  recording  the  death  of  an  individual,  the 
name  of  the  person  who  erected  the  stone  to  his 
memory,  and  also  the  name  of  the  person  who  cut  the 
letters  —  a  proof  that  the  use  of  the  Runic  characters 
was  rare,  and  confined  to  a  few.  Of  these  Eunic 
inscriptions,  of  which  a  thousand  or  more  have  been 
examined  by  antiquaries,  few  can  be  placed  before  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  in  the  1 1th  century.  The 
sign  of  the  cross  may,  in  the  dreams  of  the  zealous 
antiquary,  appear  the  sign  of  Thor's  hammer ;  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  pagans  used  such  a 
symbol,  and  the  obvious  interpretation  of  such  a 
mark  upon  a  tombstone  is  that  it  belongs  to  the  age 
of  Christianity.  Torfseus,  whose  antiquarian  zeal  was 
tempered  with  a  love  of  truth,  and  whose  antiquarian 
knowledge  has  not  been  surpassed,  says  *  not  only  that 
the  Runic  inscriptions  throw  no  light  upon  history, 
but  are  so  intricate  and  confused,  that  what  you  may 
imagine  you  catch  by  the  eye  you  cannot  by  the  un- 
derstanding ;  and  in  proof  of  his  remark  he  refers  to 
conflicting  interpretations  of  the  two  greatest  Runic 
antiquaries,  Wormius  and  Yerelius,  of  the  meaning 
of  Runic  inscriptions,  on  which  they  both  agree  per- 
fectly as  to  the  strokes  or  incisions  in  the  stone. 
Barthohnus  f  also  says,  in  his  Danish  Antiquities, 
that,  excepting  four  or  fiye,  none  of  these  Runic  in- 
scriptions are  in  any  way  illustrative  of  history,  and 
in  general  are  so  obscure  that  the  names  of  the  per- 
sons for  whom  the  stones  are  erected  can  scarcely  be 
extracted,  and  much  is  matter  of  mere  conjecture. 
The  opinions  of  these  great  antiquaries  are  singularly 
confirmed  by  the  recent  discovery  made  by  chemical 
science,  that  one  of  the  few  Runic  inscriptions  sup- 
posed to  be  illustrative  of  history,  —  one  upon  a  rock 

*   Torfaeus,  Series  Regum  Dan.  cap.  viii. 
t  BartholinuS;,  Antiq.  Dan.  1.  i.   cap.  9. 

VOL.  I.  F 


Chap.  I. 


66  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

£?s1eS  ^^  Hoby,  near  Runamoe,  in  the  Swedish  province  of 
Bleldng,  which  is  mentioned  by  Saxo  Grammaticus  as 
being,  in  his  time  (namely,  about  1160),  considered 
inexphcable,  and  which  modern  Eunic  scholars  inter- 
preted a  few  years  ago  to  relate  to  the  battle  of 
Braavalle  fought  about  the  year  680,  —  is  in  reality  no 
inscription  at  all,  but  a  mere  lusus  naturcB;  merely 
veins  of  one  substance  interspersed  in  the  body  of 
another  substance,  and  forming  marks  which  resemble 
Runic  letters  in  the  fancy  of  the  antiquary,  but  which 
is  an  appearance  in  rocks  of  granitic  formation  with 
veins  of  chlorite  interspersed,  not  unfamiliar  to  the  eye 
of  the  mineralogist.  Another  of  the  Runic  inscrip- 
tions, supposed  to  be  illustrative  of  history,  is  that  on 
a  rock  called  Korpeklinte,  in  the  island  of  Gotland, 
which,  in  Runic  characters,  told  that 

^^  Aar  halftridium  tusanda  utdrog  Helge  med  Gutanum  sinum  ; " 

that  is,  "  in  the  year  half  three  thousand,  —  videlicet, 
two  thousand  five  hundred, — went  out  Helge  with  his 
Goths."  This  inscription  must  be,  as  Wormius  him- 
self admits,  a  gross  fabrication  ;  for  the  pagan  North- 
men did  not  reckon  by  years,  but  by  winters,  and 
could  have  known  nothing  of  the  computation  of  time 
from  the  creation  of  the  world,  which  is  derived  from 
the  Bible,  and  was  unknown  to  them  in  the  year  of 
the  world  2500.  But  before  the  year  1636  somebody 
had  been  at  the  trouble  to  attempt  to  impose  upon 
the  world  by  this  inscription  in  Runic  letters,  although 
in  modern  language,  and  of  modern  conception.  We 
may  believe  that  inscriptions  on  stones  in  memory  of 
the  dead,  —  rude  calendars  cut  in  wood,  —  charms  on 
amulets,  rings,  shields,  or  swords,  —  and  tokens  of 
recognition  to  be  sent  by  messengers  to  accredit  them 
to  friends  at  a  distance,  may  have  existed  among  the 
Northmen  from  their  first  arrival  in  Europe  ;  and 
Odiii  himself  may  have  invented  or  used  the  Runio 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  67 

character  in  this  way :  but  we  have  no  ground  for  Jfi|^,;:iJ[; 
believing  that  any  distinct  use  of  writing*,  currente  ^j^j 
calamo^  applicable  to  the  transmission  of  historical 
events,  was  known  before  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  of  letters  with  Christianity,  in  the  11th 
century,  or  was  diffused  before  the  diffusion  of 
church  establishments  over  the  north.  If  the  Runic 
had  been  a  written  character  among  the  Northmen 
of  the  9th  century,  it  must  have  been  transported  to 
Iceland,  in  which  the  first  settlers  were  not  of  the 
rude  and  ignorant,  but  of  the  most  cultivated  of  their 
age  in  Norway;  but  few,  if  any.  Runic  inscriptions 
of  a  date  prior  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity  are 
found  in  Iceland.  If  they  had  possessed  the  use  of 
written  characters,  as  they  had  unquestionably  a  litera- 
ture in  Iceland,  it  would  be  absurd  to  believe  that 
they  had  not  applied  the  one  to  the  other ;  but  for  two 
hundred  and  forty  years — that  is,  until  the  time  of 
Are — should  have  committed  the  sagas  to  memory, 
instead  of  to  parchment  or  paper.  Are  himself 
would  have  used  the  Runic  character,  if  writing 
Runic  had  been  diffused  among  the  Northmen ;  and 
although  no  manuscript  of  the  time  of  Are  exists, 
but  only  early  copies  of  his  writings,  yet  among  the 
mass  of  sagas  in  manuscript  some  must  have  been  in 
Runic  characters,  if  Runic  writing  had  been  diffused 
among  the  Icelanders.  No  Runic  manuscript,  how- 
ever, on  parchment  or  paper,  of  unquestionable  anti- 
quity and  authenticity,  has  ever  been  discovered.  A 
fragment,  entitled  ''  Historia  Hialmari   Regis  Biorn- 

*  A  remarkable  proof  how  little  Runic  was  known,  or  used,  is,  that  a 
certain  Odd  Snabiornsson  gave  notice  to  Snorro  Sturleson  of  the  con- 
spiracy against  his  life  in  September,  1240,  in  Runic;  but  neither 
Snorro  (certainly  not  one  of  the  unlearned  of  his  age  in  the  saga  or 
Icelandic  literature),  nor  any  of  those  with  him  at  the  time,  could  read 
the  Runic  characters  ;  and  Snorro  in  consequence  fell  a  victim  to  the 
conspiracy,  and  was  murdered  in  his  house  on  the  22d  September,  1240. 
—  Schoning,  Pref.  to  Heimskringla. 

F    2 


68  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


DISSERT, 
Chap.  I 


DISSERT  1^^^^  atque  Thulemarkiae  ex  Fragmento  Eunici  MS. 
Uteris  recentioribus  descripta  cum  genuina  versione 
Johannis  Peringskoldi,"  without  date,  place  of  pub- 
lication, or  reference  to  where  the  original  Eunic 
manuscript  on  skin  or  paper  is  to  be  found,  is  evidently 
a  translation  of  a  part  of  the  Saga  of  Hialmar  into 
Eunic  letters,  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  on  the 
public,  and  is  to  be  classed  with  the  Korpe  Klinte  in- 
scription. The  controversy  concerning  the  antiquity 
and  historical  value  of  the  Eunic  character  and  inscrip- 
tions ran  high  in  the  latter  half  of  the  17th  century, 
and  unjustifiable  means  were  used  to  establish  opinions 
as  facts.  This  fragment  of  ancient  Eunic  writing  on 
parchment  was  ascribed  by  Eudbeck  to  the  7th  cen- 
tury, by  Stiernman  to  the  10th,  by  Biorner  to  the 
11th  or  12th.  It  was  incorporated  into  Hicks's  The- 
saurus as  a  specimen  of  written  Eunic.  But  Arch- 
bishop Benzelius,  Celsius  the  elder  and  Celsius  the 
younger,  Erichson,  and  Ihre,  antiquaries  of  great  note 
and  authority  in  Sweden,  expressed  their  doubts  of 
the  authenticity  of  this  fragment  at  the  time  it  ap- 
peared,—  about  1690  ;  and  Nardin,  in  an  Academical 
Dissertation,  published  at  Upsal  1774,  proves  from  the 
language  that  this  Eunic  manuscript  is  an  impudent 
forgery. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  69 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  II. 


CHAP.  II. 

OF    THE    RELIGION   OF    THE    NORTHMEN. 

It  must  strike  every  reader  of  sa^ra  literature  how  prelim. 
very  little  we  can  gather  from  the  sagas  of  the  doc- 
trines and  usages  of  the  paganism  which  existed  among 
the  Northmen  down  to  a  comparatively  late  period, 
and  for  five  hundred  years  after  the  cognate  Anglo- 
Saxon  branch,  both  on  the  Continent  and  in  England, 
had  been  entirely  Christianised,  and  had  been  long 
under  the  full  influence  of  the  church  and  priesthood. 
The  Anglo-Saxons  landed  in  England  about  the  year 
450.  They  appear  at  that  time  to  have  had  a  religion 
cognate  to,  if  not  identical  with,  that  of  the  Northmen 
who  landed  in  England  three  hundred  years  afterwards, 
or  about  the  year  787.  Odin,  Thor,  Friggia,  were 
among  their  deities  ;  Yule  and  Easter  were  religious 
festivals ;  and  the  eating  of  horse-flesh  was  prohibited 
in  a  council  held  in  Mercia  in  785,  as  "  not  done  by 
Christians  in  the  East" — which  implies  that  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons  also  it  was  a  pagan  custom,  derived 
from  their  ancestors.  In  about  a  century  after  the 
landing  of  the  Saxons,  viz.  about  550,  the  Heptarchy 
was  in  existence ;  and  in  about  another  century,  viz. 
about  640,  Christianity  was  generally  established 
among  them.  It  was  not  till  a  century  after  their 
first  expeditions,  about  787,  that  the  pagan  Northmen 
made  a  complete  and  permanent  conquest  of  the  king- 
dom of  Northumberland,  which  they  held  under  inde- 
pendent Danish  princes  until  953,  when  independent 
earls,  only  nominally  subject  to  the  English  crown, 
succeeded  ;  and  even  at  the  compilation  of  Doomsday 

F  3 


Chap.  II. 


70  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

PRELIM.    Book  by  William  the  Conqueror,  the  lands  of  North- 

DISSERT.  •/  ^  ' 

umberland,  Westmoreland,  Cumberland,  and  part  of 
Lancashire,  are  omitted,  as  not  belonging  to  England. 
Of  these  Anglo- Northmen  the  conversion  cannot  well 
be  fixed  to  a  date,  because  they  had  no  scruple  ap- 
parently of  nominally  adopting  Christianity  when  it 
suited  their  interests;  and  they  appear  to  have  had  no 
desire  to  convert,  or  to  be  converted,  in  their  preda- 
tory expeditions.  As  late,  however,  as  the  beginning 
of  the  11th  century,  the  Northmen  and  their  chiefs 
were  still  pagans.  Swein,  indeed,  and  his  son  Canute, 
who  in  1017  became  sole  monarch  of  England,  were 
zealous  Christians ;  but  they  and  their  contemporaries, 
Olaf  Tryggvesson  and  Olaf  the  Saint,  and  the  small 
kings  in  Norway,  were  born  pagans ;  and  their  con- 
version, and  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  religious  institutions  into  Norway  and  its  depen- 
dencies, cannot  be  dated  higher  than  the  first  half  of 
the  11th  century.  It  seems  surprising  that  we  know 
so  little  of  a  pagan  religion  existing  so  near  our 
times,  —  of  this  last  remnant  of  paganism  among  the 
European  people,  existing  in  vigour  almost  five  hun- 
dred years  after  Christianity  and  the  Romish  church 
establishment  were  diffused  in  every  other  country  ! 
What  we  know  of  it  is  from  the  Edda  compiled  l3y 
Saemund  the  priest,  a  contemporary  of  Are  who  com- 
piled the  historical  sagas.  Saemund  was  born  in  1057, 
and  had  travelled  and  studied  in  Germany  and  France. 
He  lived  consequently  in  an  age  when  many  who  had 
been  bred  in  and  understood  the  religion  of  their  fore- 
fathers were  still  living,  and  in  a  country  in  which, 
if  any  where,  its  original  doctrines  and  institutions 
would  be  preserved  in  purity. 

If  we  may  take  the  account  of  Tacitus  as  correct, 
this  ancient  religion  of  the  Germanic  race  must  have 
been  eminently  spiritual,  and  free  from  idolatry.  He 
says,  in  chapter  35.  ''DeMoribus  Germanorum,"  that 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


71 


Chap.  II. 


they  held  '^  regnator  omnium  Deus,  cetera  subject  a  Pfs|^^\f|- 
atque  parentia;"  and,  in  chapter  9,,  ^'ceterum  nee 
cohibere  parietibus  Deos,  neque  in  uUam  humani  oris 
speciem  assimilare  ex  magnitudine  coelestium  arbi- 
trantur."  The  polytheism  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
and  the  saint  worship  of  the  Christian  church  of 
Rome,  and  probably  the  infirmity  of  the  human  mind 
and  language  requiring,  in  an  uncultivated  state, 
material  forms  to  represent  abstract  ideas,  had  in  the 
course  of  ten  centuries,  between  Tacitus  and  Saemund, 
undoubtedly  mingled  with  and  moulded  the  forms 
and  ideas  of  the  original  religion  of  this  race.  Idolatry, 
in  every  shape  and  country,  is  the  result  of  a  struggle 
of  the  human  mind  to  attain  fixed  ideas  in  religion. 
It  is  universal  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  development 
of  the  intellectual  powers  of  man,  because  that  stage 
is  as  necessary  to  be  passed  through  as  infancy  in  the 
individual,  or  barbarism  in  a  society  of  human  beings. 
A  love  for  religious  certainty  and  truth  is  at  the  bot- 
tom even  of  the  grossest  idolatry,  if  we  analyse  it 
rightly.  Idolatry  is  an  attempt  to  individualise  the 
conception  of  Almighty  power,  under  a  strong  sense 
of  its  existence — to  make  it  more  possible,  or  more 
easy  for  the  mind,  in  a  certain  stage  of  development, 
to  dwell  upon  and  entertain  some  present  conception 
of  that  power.  Idols  should  be  considered  by  the 
Christian  philosopher  as  the  imperfect  words  of  a  much 
more  pure  religious  sentiment  than  our  churchmen 
generally  suppose  —  words  different,  indeed,  from 
spoken  or  written  words,  but  intended  to  convey  the 
same  conception,  and  used  with  the  same  sentiment 
by  the  ignorant  idolater  as  the  most  poetic  imagery 
and  most  eloquent  language  of  our  pulpit  orator. 
The  most  absurd  idols  of  the  Hindu  or  the  South  Sea 
islander,  sent  home  to  the  museum  of  the  Missionary 
Society  as  memorials  of  the  spiritual  blindness  of  the 
heathens  at  this  day — idols  with  four  or  five  arms 

F  4 


72  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

d?sIert    ^^^   wings,   griffin-footed,    made   up,    in    short,    of 

emblems  of  all  real  or  imaginary  living  beings  known 

to  the  ignorant  idolater,  —  are  in  reality  Avords  of 
which  these  absurdly  combined  parts  are  the  syllables, 
or  rather  are  the  expression  of  a  sentiment  of  which 
these  are  the  words.  We  smile  or  shudder  in  holy 
horror  at  these  uncouth  representations,  forgetting,  in 
the  pride  of  our  philosophy  and  theology,  that  the 
sentiment  is  the  same — viz.  the  innate  feehng  of  divine 
power ;  and  perhaps  not  less  intensely  felt  in  the 
mind  which  expresses  it  in  these  shapes,  than  in  the 
mind  which  expresses  it  in  the  shapes  of  written  or 
spoken  language.  It  is  but  the  way  of  expressing  it, 
not  what  is  intended  to  be  expressed,  that  is  different. 
Idol-language  and  word-language  have  the  same  ob- 
ject— namely,  to  express  the  impression  or  sentiment 
of  almighty  power  and  divine  existence  innate  in  the 
human  mind ;  and  who  shall  say  that  we  approach 
nearer  to  the  understanding  and  expressing  of  this 
almighty  power  and  divine  nature,  "  which  passeth 
understanding,"  with  our  alphabet,  or  written  or 
spoken  words,  than  the  ignorant  idolater,  without 
words  in  his  language  to  express  his  ideas,  in  his 
carved  and  painted  idol-language  ?  Each  means  may 
be  the  best  adapted  for  different  states  and  stages  of 
the  development  of  the  human  mind.  It  has  a  stage 
in  its  development  at  which,  in  a  highly  civilised 
country,  a  little  black  stroke  with  a  dot  over  it  pre- 
sents to  the  philosopher,  and  as  he  believes  in  the 
most  clear  and  distinct  manner,  all  that  mind  knows 
or  can  express  of  self-existence,  of  individuality — of  I. 
A  wooden  idol,  representing  something  like  to  but 
different  from  man,  presents  to  the  mind  of  the  pagan 
all  that  it  can  conceive,  or  with  its  means  express, 
of  superhuman  divine  existence.  Is  not  this  a  mere 
defect  in  the  alphabet  used  ?  Is  not  the  real  inward 
sentiment  in   the   mind  of  man,  with  regard  to  the 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  73 

Divinity,  the  same,  precisely  the  same,  whatever  be  JJIsert 
the  mode  of  expressing  it  ?  But  the  pagan,  the  idola-  — _ 
ter,  the  ignorant  even  of  the  Catholic  church,  worship 
these  stocks  and  stones;  and  instead  of  regarding 
them  as  signs  only  shadowing  forth  what,  in  its 
intellectual  state,  the  human  mind  cannot  otherwise 
express  of  its  religious  sentiments,  take  the  signs  for 
the  things  they  represent,  and  worship  them  as  such. 
So  do  we,  in  all  our  pride  of  knowledge  and  intel- 
lectual development.  We  too  worship  our  signs  — 
our  words.  Let  any  man  set  himself  to  the  task  of 
examining  the  state  of  his  knowledge  on  the  most 
important  subjects,  divine  or  human,  and  he  will  find 
himself  a  mere  word- worshipper ;  he  will  find  words 
without  ideas  or  meaning  in  his  mind  venerated,  made 
idols  of — idols  difi'erent  from  those  carved  in  wood 
or  stone  only  by  being  stamped  with  printers'  ink  on 
white  paper.  This  is  perhaps  the  just  view  which  the 
philosopher  and  the  humble  Christian  should  take,  of 
all  the  natural  forms  of  religion  which  have  ever, 
existed  beyond  the  pale  of  the  religion  revealed  to  us 
in  the  Scriptures. 

This  necessity  of  man's  expressing  in  his  unculti- 
vated mental  condition,  by  the  material  visible  means 
of  idols,  the  innate  sentiment  of  religion  which  he 
has  no  other  language  for,  will,  if  it  do  not  reconcile, 
render  very  unimportant  the  various  speculations  of 
antiquaries  relative  to  Odin.  Some  find  that  Odin  was 
a  real  personage,  who,  on  the  fall  of  Mithridates,  mi- 
grated mth  his  nation  from  the  borders  of  the  Tanais, 
to  escape  the  Roman  yoke,  about  seventy  years  before 
our  era.  This  is  the  opinion  of  Snorro  Sturleson ;  and, 
as  far  as  regards  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  Northmen,  it 
is  confirmed  by  all  the  traditions,  mythological  or  his- 
torical, of  the  scalds.  Torfaeus,  reckoning  from  scaldic 
genealogies,  finds  that  there  must  have  been  an  older 
Odin ;  and  if  we  are  to  admit  that  the  god  called  Odin 


74  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

DISSERT    ^^^  ^  ^^^^  historical  personage,  it  is  impossible  to  fix, 

from  the  traditionary  genealogies  of  those  who  claimed 

to  be  his  descendants,  at  what  period  he  lived.  There 
are  no  fixed  points  in  the  history  of  the  North  before 
the  middle  of  the  9th  century,  when,  about  853  or 
854,  the  birth  of  Harald  Haarfager,  who  lived  to  931, 
is  determined  from  contemporary  history.  The  scaldic 
genealogies  make  this  king  the  twenty- eighth  in  de- 
scent from  Odin.  If  we  allow  eleven  years  to  each 
reign,  which  is  the  average  length  of  the  reigns  in 
the  Heptarchy,  we  must  place  Odin  550  years  after 
the  Christian  era.  If  we  take  Sir  Isaac  Newton's 
computation  of  eighteen  years  as  the  average  length 
of  reigns,  we  bring  Odin  to  the  year  368  of  our  era. 
If  we  take  lives  instead  of  reigns,  we  must  believe 
twenty-seven  successive  persons  to  have  lived  so  long 
as  to  average  thirty-five  years  each,  in  order  to  place 
this  god  called  Odin  seventy  years  before  our  era. 
When  we  turn  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  genealogies,  we 
find  it  still  more  difficult  to  place  Odin.  King  Alfred 
was  born  849,  or  about  four  years  before  Harald 
Haarfager,  and  is  only  twenty-three  generations  from 
the  Odin  or  Wodin  of  Hengist  and  Horsa.  Off*a,  king 
of  Mercia,  who  lived  about  793,  is  only  fifteen  gene- 
rations ;  Ida,  king  of  Northumberland,  who  lived 
about  547,  only  nine  generations  ;  and  Ella,  king  of 
Northumberland,  who  lived  about  559,  is  eleven  ge- 
nerations from  Odin  or  Wodin.  The  reasonable  view 
is  that  of  Pinkerton,  which  has  more  recently  been 
developed  by  Grimm  and  other  German  Avriters  on 
Scandinavian  mythology,  — that  Odin,  Wodin,  Godin, 
were  names  of  the  Supreme  Divine  Power  among  the 
Germanic  race ;  and  that  Thor,  Fryggia,  &c.  were 
merely  impersonations  of  divine  attributes  ;  that 
none  of  these  were  ever  human  heroes,  deified  by 
their  contemporaries  or  descendants.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  reasonably  doubted  whether,  in  any  age  or  country, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  75 

any  such  deification  of  mortals  known  to  be  human  ^{^|^}J{; 
beings — any  such  hero-worship  as  classical  schoolmen  — _ 
and  antiquaries  suppose,  ever  did  take  place  among 
any  portion  of  the  human  race ;  for  it  is  contrary  to 
the  natural  tendency  and  movement  of  the  human 
mind.  It  is  a  trite  observation,  that  no  people  have 
ever  been  discovered  by  the  traveller  in  so  rude  and 
barbarous  a  state  as  to  be  without  any  sentiment  of  a 
Divinity  ;  and  that  this  universal  sentiment  is  more 
distinctive  of  the  species  man  even  than  his  reasoning 
powers, — for  in  these  the  elephant,  the  dog,  the  beaver, 
the  bee,  partake,  and  almost  vie  with  human  beings 
in  the  lowest  condition  of  humanity.  The  writers 
who  make  the  most  of  this  trite  observation  in  sup- 
port of  natural  religion  overlook  a  powerful  argument 
for  the  truth  of  revealed  religion,  in  a  sentiment 
equally  innate,  and  as  widely  diffused  among  men  in 
a  natural  state.  No  people  have  ever  been  discovered 
by  the  traveller  or  the  antiquary  without  a  strong 
and  distinct  impression  of  the  incarnation,  past,  pre- 
sent, or  to  come,  as  well  as  the  existence,  of  the  Di- 
vinity. Our  divines  turn  away  from  this  argument 
in  support  of  revealed  religion.  They  assume  that,  in 
the  dark  ages  of  every  nation,  individuals  have  taken 
to  themselves  the  attributes  and  honours  of  divinity — 
have  imposed  themselves  upon  their  contemporaries 
as  gods,  or  have  been  taken  by  their  contemporaries 
or  their  posterity  for  gods  ;  and  in  this  schoolboy 
way  great  divines,  historians,  and  philosophers  think 
of,  tell  of,  and  account  for,  idolatry  and  paganism 
among  rude  uncivilised  nations.  But  they  do  not 
apply  to  the  subject  two  universally  and  permanently 
ruling  principles  of  the  human  mind  in  every  stage 
of  development :  first,  that  there  is  no  deceiving  a 
man's  own  consciousness ;  and,  second,  that  if  a  man 
cannot  deceive  himself,  he  cannot  deceive  others. 
Alexander  the  Great,  or  Odin,   or  the  Roman   em- 


76  CHRONICLE   OF    THE 

diIsVrt    P^^^^s,  or  the  Roman  pontiffs,  may  have  placed  them- 
—       selves  at  the  head  of  the  priesthood  or  church,  and 
may  have  allowed  their  flatterers  to  place  their  sta- 
tues among  those  of  the  gods,  and  to  append  the  title 
of  Divus  or  Saint  to   their  names ;  but  in  all  this 
church  trickery  these  men  no  more  believed  them- 
selves gods,  than  their  people  believed  them  to  be  of 
divine  nature.     The  human  mind,  in  a  state  of  sanity, 
never  was  discovered  in  so  low  a  condition  of  the  rea- 
soning power  as  to  approach  to  any  such  conclusions. 
As   to  a  rude   and  ignorant  people  elevating  their 
deceased   leaders,  kings,   heroes,  to   a  place  among 
their  deities,  it  is  the  last  thing  a  rude  and  ignorant 
people  would  think  of;  for  in  a  rude  and  ignorant 
state  the  natural  movement  of  the  human  mind  is  to 
detract  from,  not  to  elevate,  the  merits  of  others ; 
and  the  valued  endowments  of  body  or  mind  in  such 
a  state — strength,  beauty,  valour,  or  even  wisdom  in 
the  narrow  range  of  their  public  or  private  affairs  — 
are  more  generally  diffused  than  the  intellectual  at- 
tainments valued  by  men  in  a  civilised  state,  and  are 
neither  so  high  nor  so  rare  as  to  be  deified,  instead  of 
being  subjects  of  envy  and  detraction,  or  of  emulation. 
In  no  state,  barbarous  or  civilised,  are  men  disposed 
to  yield   superiority,  and  allow  divine  honours  and 
attributes  to  mortals  who,  as  natural  self-love  or  va- 
nity will  whisper  to  every  one,  are  not  much  superior, 
—  not  divinely  superior,  to  themselves.     The  natural 
movement  and  tendency  of  the  human  mind  are  equally 
opposed  in  every  stage  of  development,  in  every  state 
of  society,  to  any  such  hero-worship.     Divines  over- 
look the  weight  of  this  argument  for  revealed  religion 
drawn  from  natural  religion — that  it  is  not  from  man 
upwards,  but  from  the  Divinity  downwards,  that  this 
universal  sentiment  of  an  incarnation  proceeds  ;  that 
the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  not  a  sentiment 
more  innate  in  the  human  mind,  than  that  of  the  in- 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  77 


Chap.  II. 


carnation  of  the  Supreme  Being  at  some  period,  past,  JIs^e^J^i; 
present,  or  future  ;  that  it  is  not  Jupiter,  Mars,  or 
Odin  who  were  men  or  heroes  set  up  by  their  fellow- 
men  as  gods  to  be  worshipped,  but  that  it  is  the 
innate  and  universal  sentiment  of  the  human  mind 
which  has  set  them  up.  What  the  mind  cannot  grasp 
in  one  conception,  or  express  in  one  expression,  it  ne- 
cessarily divides ;  and  thus  groups  of  divine  attributes 
have  been  impersonated  as  distinct  deities,  individual- 
ised, named,  incarnated,  by  an  irresistible  instinct  to 
find  an  incarnation  of  Divine  Power ;  and  these  distinct 
individualisations  produced  in  a  rude  state  of  the 
human  mind  by  the  poverty  of  language,  have  been 
made  historical  personages  of.  But,  looking  at  the  na- 
tural movement  of  the  human  mind  it  may  be  reason- 
ably doubted  whether  any  historical  personage,  who 
really  lived  as  a  mortal  man,  was  ever  made  a  god  of 
by  his  fellow-men.  The  Christian  philosopher,  who 
considers  the  expected  Messiah  of  the  Jews,  the  in- 
carnation of  Jupiter,  of  Odin,  and  the  living  incar- 
nation of  a  Lama  among  a  great  proportion  of  the 
present  population  of  Asia,  will  not  hesitate  to  place 
the  accomplished  advent  of  our  Saviour  upon  the  same 
innate  sentiment  of  the  human  mind  as  the  existence 
itself  of  Supreme  Divine  Power.  Both  are  universal 
innate  sentiments  of  the  mind  of  man.  The  divines 
and  Christian  philosophers  who  are  not  content  with 
resting  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Divine  Power 
upon  the  innate  sentiment  of  the  human  mind,  upon 
the  same  ground  as  the  proof  of  our  self-existence 
rests,  but  who  seek  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  Su- 
preme Divine  Power  from  the  design,  contrivance, 
and  wisdom  manifested  in  the  material  objects  around 
us, — Paley,  and  the  Bridgewater  Bequest  writers,  who 
undertook,  for  a  prize  of  two  or  three  hundred  pounds 
given  by  an  English  lord,  to  prove  to  all  and  sundry 
of  God's  creatures  the  existence  of  a  God  from  the 


Chap.  II. 


78  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

5?Ji^l^-    mechanism  of  the  hand,  the  eye,  the  movements  of 

DISSERT.  %l      I 

the  planetary  bodies,  and  other  natural  objects  with- 
out us,  and  not  from  that  which  is  within  us,  —  who 
seek  to  prove  the  spiritual  from  the  material,  and  not 
from  the  spirituality  existing  and   innate  in  every 
man's  mind,  —  are  not  so  immeasurably  distant  from 
gross   paganism   as   they   suppose.      They   and   the 
pagan, — the  Odin- worshipper,  or  Jupiter-worshipper, 
or  whatever  he  may  be, — proceed  upon  the  very  same 
material  grounds,  and  the  pagan  appears  the  closer 
and  stricter  reasoner  of  the  two.     An  ignorant  and 
barbarous  people  may  be  wrong  in  the  grounds  from 
which  they  reason,  but  are  seldom  wrong  in  the  rea- 
soning process  itself.     Their  conclusions  are  usually 
very  correct,  only  drawn  from  false  premises.     They 
mark  the  thunder-bolt,  and  conclude  there  is  a  Su- 
preme Divine  Cause  —  a  thunder-maker.    They  mark 
the  ocean,  —  now  calm  and  smiling,  now  shaking  the 
earth  with  its  fury,  —  and  conclude  there  must  be  an 
ocean  god.     This  is  precisely  the  reasoning  of  the 
Paley  and  of  the  Bridgewater  Bequest  philosophy. 
The  manifest  design,  contrivance,  adaptation  of  means 
to  an  end  in  a  watch,  prove  the  existence  of  a  watch- 
maker —  of  the  hand,  of  a  hand-maker  —  of  the  eye, 
of  an  eye-maker  —  of  the  world,  of  a  world-maker. 
But  from  these  material- world  grounds  these  mate- 
rial philosophers  cannot  deduce,  in  strict  reasoning, 
the  unity  of  the  Supreme  Divine  Power ;  still  less  the 
moral  perfections  of  the  Supreme  Divine  Power.    The 
pagan  proceeds  upon  exactly  the  same  grounds  in  his 
religious  belief ;  but  reasons  much  more  correctly  and 
logically  from  the  same  material  grounds,  when  he 
concludes  there  is  a  separate  Divine  Power  for  each 
separate  class  of  material  objects — a  god  of  thunder, 
a  Neptune,  and  so  on ;  and  concludes,  from  the  ma- 
terial-world grounds,  that  the  superiority  of  the  intel- 
ligence that  made  it,  above  his  which  perceives  it,  is 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


79 


Chap.  II. 


in  degree  and  power,  not  in  kind ;  and  his  material-  ^fssERr: 
Avorld  grounds  give  him  no  reason,  in  his  strict  rea- 
soning process,  to  conclude  that  the  divine  intelli- 
gence, or  intelligences,  which  he  deduces  from  them, 
are  exempt  from  the  passions  or  frailties  of  the  intel- 
ligences he  is  acquainted  with.  He  attributes,  there- 
fore, to  his  gods,  the  passions  and  motives  of  men ; 
and  the  Christian  philosophers,  who  reason  from  the 
same  grounds  to  prove  the  existence  of  the  Deity,  do 
not  reason  half  so  correctly  as  the  pagan ;  for  these 
grounds  will  carry  human  reason  no  farther  than  the 
pagan  goes,  —  and  there  Paley,  prize-essay  divinity, 
and  paganism  stick  together  neck  and  neck.  The 
material- world  grounds  prove  the  existence  only  of 
creative  power.  The  goodness,  mercy,  omniscience, 
all  the  attributes  of  God,  are  in  the  innate  sentiment 
of  the  human  mind  of  an  existence  of  Supreme  Divine 
Power ;  and  upon  this  innate  sentiment  or  spiri- 
tuality the  material- world  argument  has  to  fall  back, 
to  rescue  itself  from  mere  paganism.  The  distinctive 
characteristics  of  paganism  and  Christianity  are,  that 
the  former  rests  entirely  on  material- world  grounds 
—  and  from  these  grounds  reasons  strictly  and  cor- 
rectly, its  conclusions  being  correctly  dra^vn,  but 
from  imperfect  premises  ;  the  latter  rests  on  the  spi- 
ritual evidence  of  the  innate  sentiment  of  a  Divine 
Existence,  of  which  every  human  mind  is  as  conscious 
as  of  its  OAvn  existence  —  and  on  Kevelation.  Paley, 
the  Bridgewater  Bequest  philosophers,  and  all  that 
school  of  Christian  reasoners,  have,  in  fact,  done  in- 
finite mischief  to  religion,  by  throwing  out  of  view 
the  innate  sense,  the  spirituality  of  the  human  mind, 
on  which  pure  religion  is  founded  ;  and  by  resting  its 
evidences  on  material  external  objects,  from  which  the 
deist,  the  polytheist,  the  Odin-worshipper,  if  such  now 
existed,  might  draw  conclusions  in  their  own  favour 
more  strictly  logical  than  this  kind  of  Christian  rea- 


Chap.  II. 


80  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    soner  can ;  for  divine  power,  and  no  other  of  the 

DISSERT.  .^     ^ 

attributes  of  the  Deity,  can  be  deduced  from  the  ma- 
terial world  without  a  reference  to  the  intellectual, 
to  the  human  mind,  and  to  the  inspired  writings. 
These  philosophers  have  lowered  the  tone  of  rehgion 
by  their  evidences  drawn  from  the  material  world ; 
and  their  evidences  do  not,  in  strict  reasoning,  prove 
their  conclusions. 

Of  the  doctrine,  institutions,  and  forms  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Odin,  we  have  but  few  memorials.  There 
are  two  Eddas.  The  older  Edda  is  that  which  was 
composed  or  compiled  by  Saemund,  and  of  it  only 
three  fragments  are  extant.  The  one  is  called  the 
"  Yoluspa,"  or  the  Prophecy  of  Yola.  In  the  Scotch 
words  "  spse-mfe,"  and  in  the  English  word  "  spy,"  we 
retain  words  derived  from  the  same  root,  and  with 
the  same  meaning,  as  the  word  "  spa"  of  the  Yoluspa. 
The  second  fragment  is  called  "  Havamal,"  or  the  High 
Discourse ;  the  third  is  the  Magic,  or  Song  of  Odin. 
The  Yoluspa  gives  an  account  by  the  prophetess  of 
the  actions  and  operations  of  the  gods ;  a  description 
of  chaos ;  of  the  formation  of  the  world ;  of  giants, 
men,  dwarfs ;  of  a  final  conflagration  and  dissolution 
of  all  things ;  and  of  the  future  happiness  of  the  good, 
and  punishment  of  the  wicked.  The  Havamal  is  a 
collection  of  moral  and  economical  precepts.  The 
Song  of  Odin  is  a  collection  of  stanzas  in  celebration 
of  his  magic  powers.  The  younger  Edda,  composed 
120  years  after  the  older,  by  Snorro  Sturleson,  is  a 
commentary  upon  the  Yoluspa;  illustrating  it  in  a 
dialogue  between  Gylfe,  the  supposed  contemporary 
of  Odin,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Ganglr,  and 
three  divinities,  —  Har  (the  High),  Jafnhar  (equal  to 
the  High),  and  Thriddi  (the  Third),  —  at  Asgard 
(the  abode  of  the  gods,  or  the  original  Asiatic  seat  of 
Odin),  to  which  Gylfe  had  gone  to  ascertain  the  cause 
of  the  superiority  of  the  Asiatics.     Both  the  Eddas 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  81 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  II. 


appear  to  have  been  composed  as  hand-books  to  assist    J'^^^y^^f,-, 
in  understanding  the  names  of  the  gods,  and  the  allu- 
sions to  them  in   the  poetry  of  the   scalds ;   not  to 
illustrate  the  doctrine  of  the  religion  of  Odin.     The 
absurd   and  the  rational  are   consequently  mingled. 
Many  sublime  conceptions,  and  many  apparently  bor- 
rowed by  Sa3mund  and  Snorro  from  Christianity,  —  as 
for  instance  the  Trinity  mth  which  Gangler  converses, 
— are  mixed  with  fictions  almost  as  puerile  as  those  of 
the  classical  mythology.     The  genius  of  Snorro  Stur- 
leson  shines  even  in  these  fables.     In  the  grave  hu- 
mour with  which  the   most  extravagantly  gigantic 
feats  of  Thor  at  Utgaard  are  related  and  explained. 
Swift   himself  is   not   more  happy ;    and   one   would 
almost  believe  that  Swift  had  the  adventures  of  Thor 
and  the  giant  Utgaard  Loke  before  him  when  he 
wrote  of  Brobdignac.     The  practical  forms  or  modes 
of  worship  in  the  religion  of  Odin  are  not  to  be  dis- 
covered from  the  Eddas,  nor  from  the  sagas  which 
the  two  Eddas  were  intended  to  illustrate.     It  is  pro- 
bable that  much  has  been  altered  to  suit  the  ideas  of 
the  age  in  which  they  were  committed  to  writing,  and 
of  the  scribes  who  compiled  them.     Christianity  in 
Scandinavia  seems,  in  the  11th  century,  to  have  con- 
sisted merely  in  the  ceremony  of  baptism,  without  any 
instruction  in  its  doctrines.    The  wholesale  conversion 
of  whole  districts  by  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  and  King  Olaf 
the  Saint,  was  evidently  the  mere  ceremony  of  baptism. 
On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Stiklestad  the  mere  accej)t- 
ance  and  performance  of  that  ceremony,  without  any 
instruction,  was  considered  by  Saint  Olaf  himself  a  suf- 
ficient Christianising  of  the  pagan  robbers,  whose  assist- 
ance he  refused  unless  they  would  consent  to  be  Chris- 
tians.   From  the  high  importance  attached  to  the  mere 
ceremony  without  reference  to  its  meaning,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  Christian  transcribers,  or  relators 
of  the  historical  sagas,  may  have  thought  it  decent  to 

VOL.  I.  G 


82 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  II. 


make  the  ancestors  of  the  kings  or  great  personages 
they  are  treating  of,  although  they  had  lived  in  pagan 
times,  partake  of  the  important  Christian  ceremony 
which  of  itself  had,  in  the  rude  conception  of  the 
early  Christian  converts,  a  saving  power ;  for  we  find 
on  the  birth  of  every  child  who  is  to  become  a  king, 
and  leave  descendants,  that  "  water  was  poured  over 
the  child,  and  a  name  given  him ; ''  that  he  was  bap- 
tized, in  short,  although  living  in  the  Odin  religion. 
Harald  Haarfager  is  stated  in  his  saga  "  to  have  had 
water  poured  over  him,  and  a  name  given  him,"  and 
his  son  Hakon  also,  who  succeeded  him ;  but  we  hear 
nothing  of  any  such  baptism  of  Eric  Blodoxe,  or  of 
any  other  of  his  sons,  nor  of  any  whose  descendants 
did  not  succeed  to  power  as  kings.  It  may  reasonably 
be  doubted  if  any  such  ceremony  was  used  in  the 
Odin  religion  on  the  birth  of  a  child ;  because  these 
pagans  certainly  exposed  their  children  —  a  practice 
not  consistent  with  dedicating  them  by  a  ceremony 
analogous  to  baptism  to  the  service  of  their  gods  in 
any  way ;  and  if  it  had  no  meaning  in  their  religion, 
it  could  not  be  practised,  unless  in  imitation  of  the 
Christian  ceremony.  Marriage  also  appears  not  to 
have  been  celebrated  with  any  religious  form.  Poly- 
gamy was  as  fully  tolerated  as  in  Asia.  Harald 
Haarfager  had  nine  wives,  with  several  concubines. 
Saint  Olaf  had  concubines  besides  his  wife,  and  was 
succeeded  by  a  natural  son  ;  for  illegitimacy,  where  it 
is  not  founded  on  any  religious  element  in  the  mar- 
riage tie,  is  not  considered  a  natural  or  just  disquali- 
fication from  inheritance.  Marriage  appears  with  the 
Odin  worshippers  to  have  been  altogether  a  civil  tie, 
subject,  consequently,  to  the  disruptions  which  civil 
circumstances  might  produce  or  excuse. 

The  churches  or  temples  of  Odin  appear  to  have 
had  no  consecrated  order  of  men  like  a  priesthood  set 
apart  for  administering  in  religious   rites.     In  the 


Chap.  1 1. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  83 

historical  sao^as,  in  the  accounts  of  the  direct  colli-     ^PJ^^^f, 
sions  between  Hakon  Athelstan's  foster-son,  or  Olaf 
the  Saint,  with  the  worshippers  of  Odin,  in  the  tem- 
ples at  MaBre,  and  in  Gudbrandsdal,  no  mention  is 
made  of  the  presence   of  any  priests.     Bonders  of 
eminence,  great  people,  and  even  district  kings,  are 
mutilated  or  put  to  death  —  suffer  martyrdom  in  the 
cause  of  Odinism ;  but  no  word  is  there  to  be  found 
of  any  man  in  sacerdotal  function.     Three  great  re- 
ligious festivals  appear  to  have  been  held  by  the  Odin 
worshippers.     One,  in  honour  of  Thor,  was  held  in 
midwinter,  about  the  turn  of  the  day;  and  from  co- 
inciding nearly  with  the  Christmas  of  the  Christian 
church,  the  name  of  Yule,  derived  from  Yiolner,  one 
of  Odin's  names,  and  the  festivity  and  merry-making 
of  the  pagan  celebration,  were  amalgamated  with  the 
Christian  commemoration.     The  second,  in  honour  of 
Friggia,  was  held  at  the  first  quarter  of  the  second 
moon  after  the  beginning  of  the  year*;  and  the  third, 
in  honour  of  Odin,  in  the  beginning  of  spring.     The 
convenience  of  having  snow  to  travel  on,   and  the 
leisure  and  facility  of  travelling  while  snow  covered 
the  ground,  have  probably  been  the  cause  of  all  these 
pagan  festivals  being  crowded  together  in  the  winter 
half-year,  or  between  harvest  and  seed-time.     They 
were  not  solely  nor  principally  religious  festivals,  but 
assemblies  of  the  people  at  which  the  regular  Things 
were  held,  business  transacted,  and  fairs  kept  for  bar- 
tering,  and   buying,   and   merry-making.     An  here- 
ditary priesthood  descended  from  the  twelve  diars,  or 
drottars,  or  godars,  who  accompanied  Odin  from  Asia, 
and  who  originally  were  judges  as  well  as  priests  in 
the  Things  held  at  these  great  religious  festivals,  ex- 
isted at  the  colonisation  of  Iceland,  and  down  to  the 
time  of  Snorro  Sturleson  himself,  who  was  one  of 

*   The  Northmen  appear  to  have  reckoned  by  winters,  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  year  or  winter  from  the  l6th  of  October. 

G    2 


Chap.  II. 


84  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

DissFRT  t^os^  godars ;  but  the  sacerdotal  function  had  become 
merged  m  the  civil  function  of  judge  apparently  long 
before  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  The  judicial 
functions  and  emoluments  of  judge  descending  by 
hereditary  rights  in  certain  families,  as  appertaining 
to  their  hereditary  priesthood,  could  not  be  a  popular 
institution,  especially  with  no  sacerdotal  function  to 
perform.  True  rehgion,  as  we  see  in  Scotland  and 
England,  can  scarcely  maintain  itself  when  it  mixes 
up  civil  power  or  great  wealth  with  the  religious 
element  in  its  establishment ;  and  much  less  can  a 
false  religion.  We  may  gather  from  the  silence  of 
the  sagas  on  the  point,  that  the  godars  had  no  sacer- 
dotal or  religious  function  in  society ;  and  did  not, 
even  in  the  earliest  historical  period,  exist  as  priests, 
but  as  hereditary  local  judges  only,  each  in  his  own 
godard  or  parish.  At  the  Things  at  which  Hakon 
Athelstan's  foster-son,  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  and  Olaf  the 
Saint,  come  in  collision  with  the  religion  of  Odin,  and 
threaten  and  even  put  to  death  peasants  and  chiefs  who 
adhere  to  Odinism,  no  priests  or  godars  appear,  or  are 
spoken  of.  Their  civil  power,  jurisdiction,  and  dues  or 
emoluments,  however,  were  derived  from  their  here- 
ditary succession  to  the  priestly  office  in  their  respective 
godards ;  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
they,  their  supporters,  and  the  religion  on  which  they 
founded  their  rights,  were  not  the  popular  side  at  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.  Some  indications  may 
be  perceived  of  its  having  been  a  political  movement 
to  adopt  Christianity.  The  supporters  of  the  old  re- 
ligion appear  to  have  been  the  small  kings,  the  rich 
bonders,  and  those  who  may  reasonably  be  supposed 
to  have  been  themselves  godars,  or  connected  with 
them.  The  support  of  Christianity,  on  the  other 
hand,  appears  to  have  come  from  the  people  and  the 
kings,  and  not  from  the  kings  alone.  In  Iceland, 
where  the  godars,  with  their  civil  powers,  were  trans- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  85 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  II. 


planted  from  Norway  by  the  first  aristocratical  settlers,  Jf^m^^ 
and  where  Christianity  had  no  royal  supporters,  the 
Thing  of  the  people  declared  Christianity  the  lawful 
religion  of  the  land.  The  institutions  of  Odinism,  as 
well  as  its  doctrines,  Avere  evidently  become  extinct 
as  religion.  The  incompatible  elements  of  civil  power, 
wealth,  and  sacerdotal  function,  had  lost  all  reUgious 
influence.  The  mixture  is  at  this  day  as  ineffective 
in  its  power  over  the  human  mind  as  it  was  in  the 
11th  century,  and  in  the  Christian  religion  as  it  was 
in  Odinism. 

The  only  practices  connected  with  religion  men- 
tioned in  the  sagas,  at  which  a  priesthood  may  have 
officiated,  are  sacrifices,  at  the  three  great  festivals, 
of  cattle,  which  were  killed  and  feasted  upon.  The 
door-post,  floor,  and  people  are  stated  to  have  been 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  by  a  brush ; 
but  even  this  may  be  a  fiction  of  the  saga-maker, 
taken  from  the  similar  sprinkling  of  holy  water  by  a 
brush  in  the  Romish  church.  The  best  established  of 
the  religious  practices  of  the  Odin  worshippers  was 
the  partaking  of  horse-flesh  at  those  festivals,  as  com- 
memorative of  their  ancestors.  This  practice  was 
transplanted  even  to  Iceland  by  the  pagan  settlers, 
and  it  held  its  ground  there  long  after  Christianity  was 
adopted.  As  food,  the  horse  never  could  have  been 
reared  in  Iceland ;  and  a  religious  or  popular  super- 
stition only  must  have  kept  up  such  a  custom  there. 
The  eating  of  horse-flesh  at  those  festivals  appears  to 
have  been  held  as  decisive  a  test  of  paganism,  as  bap- 
tism of  Christianity  ;  and  Avas  punished  by  death  in 
the  11th  century  by  Saint  Olaf.  Public  business, 
however,  in  the  Things,  and  the  ordinary  business  and 
pleasures  of  great  country  fairs,  appear  to  have  occu- 
pied the  people  at  those  festivals  much  more  than  any 
rehgious  observances.  Public  worship  under  any  form, 
or  private  or  household  devotion  in  the  Odin  religion, 

G  3 


86  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

g^gELm  cannot  be  distinctly  traced  in  the  sagas.  It  is  to  be 
—  remembered  however,  that  it  might  not  have  been 
thought  right  or  safe  by  the  saga-relater  or  saga-scribe 
to  go  far  into  an  account  of  pagan  observances,  cus- 
toms, or  doctrines ;  in  case  of  being  considered  him- 
self as  a  believer  in  them.  This  may  have  affected 
considerably  the  fidelity  of  delivery  of  subjects,  both 
religious  and  political,  in  the  sagas,  when  they  were 
still  in  a  traditionary,  not  a  written  state.  To  some 
cause  of  this  kind  we  must  ascribe  the  trifling  amount 
of  information  concerning  the  Odin  worship  to  be 
found  in  the  sagas.  Eeligion  may  have  been  very 
little  regarded,  and  a  priesthood  to  support  its  observ- 
ances and  doctrines  may  have  become  a  class  con- 
nected only  with  civil  power  and  emolument  in  their 
godards,  and  not  thought  of  as  belonging  to  religious 
service ;  but  still  a  very  strong  religious  spirit,  among 
some  at  least  of  the  pagan  population,  may  be  inferred 
from  various  details  in  the  sagas.  We  read  of  many 
individuals  in  the  reigns  of  Hakon  Athelstan's  foster- 
son,  of  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  and  of  Olaf  the  Saint,  suf- 
fering the  loss  of  fortune,  mutilation,  torture,  and 
death,  rather  than  give  up  their  religion  and  submit 
to  baptism.  The  religion  of  Odin  had  its  martyrs  in 
those  days,  and  consequently  must  have  had  its  doc- 
trines, its  devotions,  its  observances,  its  application  to 
the  mind  of  man  in  some  way,  its  something  to  suffer 
for  ;  but  the  sagas  leave  us  in  the  dark  with  regard 
to  the  doctrines  and  observances  of  a  religion  for  which 
men  were  willing  to  suffer.  The  machinery  of  the 
Odin  mythology,  the  fables,  allegories,  meanings,  and 
no-meanings  of  the  Myths,  however  interesting,  give 
us  little  or  no  information  on  the  really  important 
points, — the  amount,  quality,  and  social  influence  of 
the  religion  of  the  pagan  Northmen  immediately  pre- 
vious to  their  conversion  to  Christianity.  The  many 
names  of  places  derived  from  Thor,  and  other  names 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  87 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  II. 


given  to  the  Supreme  Being  in  their  religion,  which    ^fgHJ^^J 
are  still  to  be  recognised,  not  only  in  Scandinavia,  but 
in  the  north  of  Scotland,  the  Faroe  Islands,  Iceland, 
show  that  the  Northmen  carried  about  with  them  some 
knowledge  of  their  religion.     The  many  allusions  in 
the  poems  and  songs  of  the  scalds  presuppose  even  a 
very  intimate  knowledge,  on  the  part  of  the  hearers, 
with  a  very  complicated  mythological  nomenclature 
and  system.   Every  one,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest, 
must  have  been  familiar  with  the  names,  functions, 
attributes,   histories    ascribed  to  these  gods,  or   the 
scald   would   have   been   unintelligible.      The   great 
development  of  the  intellectual  powers  among  the 
Northmen,  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  curious  inferences 
to  be  drawn  from  the  sagas.     The  descriptions  of  re- 
lative situations  of  countries,  as  East,  West,  North, 
or  South,  show  generalised  ideas  and  habits  of  think- 
ing among  their  seafaring  men ;  and  the  songs  of  the 
scalds,  as  those  of  the  four  who  accompanied  Saint 
01  af  at  the  battle  of  Stikleslad,  seem  to  have  been 
instantly  seized  and  got  by  heart  by  the  people, — the 
Biarkemal   to   have   been   instantly  recognised,    and 
thought  applicable   to   their  situation ;    and  all   the 
mythological,  and  to  us  obscure   allusions,  to   have 
been  understood  generally  in  the  halls  in  which  the 
scalds  recited  or  sung  their  compositions.     Their  reli- 
gion must  have  been  taught  to  them,  although  we  find 
few  traces  of  the  religious  establishment  or  social  ar- 
rangements by  which  this  was  done. 

The  material  remains  of  this  religion  of  Odin  are 
surprisingly  few.  We  find  in  the  North  very  few 
remains  of  temples  ; — no  statues,  emblems,  images, 
symbols.  Was  it  actually  more  spiritual  than  other 
systems  of  paganism,  and  therefore  less  material  in 
its  outward  expression  ?  If  we  consider  the  vast 
mounds  raised  in  memory  of  the  dead,  and  their  high 
appreciation  of  their  great  men  of  former  ages,  we  can 

G  4 


88 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  II. 


scarcely  doubt  but  that  the  Northmen  had  higher 
notions  of  a  future  state  than  that  of  drinking  ale  in 
Valhalla. 

The  temples  of  Odin  appear  to  have  been  but  thinly 
scattered.  We  hear  but  of  the  one  at  Msere,  and  one 
at  Lade,  in  the  Drontheim  district.  A  mound  of  earth 
alone  remains  at  Msere  which  was  the  principal  temple 
in  the  north  of  Norway :  houses  or  halls,  constructed 
of  wood,  for  receiving  the  people  who  came  together 
to  eat,  drink,  and  transact  their  business,  have  pro- 
bably been  all  the  structures.  The  temple  at  Upsal,  or 
Upsalr  (the  up-halls  or  great  halls),  should  have  left 
some  traces  of  former  magnificence ;  for  it  was  the 
residence  of  Odin  himself,  —  the  head-quarters,  the 
Rome  of  the  Odin  religion ;  and  in  part,  at  least,  was 
constructed  of  stone.  Adam  of  Bremen,  who  lived 
about  the  time  Christianity  was  first  introduced  into 
Sweden,  namely,  about  1064,  says,  "  Nobilissimum  ilia 
gens  templum  habet  quod  Upsala  dicitur,  non  longe 
positum  a  Sictona  civitate  vel  Birka.  In  hoc  templo, 
quod  totum  ex  auro  paratum  est,  statua  trium  deorum 
veneratur  populus,  ita  ut  potentissimus  eorum  Thor 
in  medio  solum  habeat  triclinium,  hinc  et  inde  locum 
possident  Woden  et  Fricco."  In  this  passage  from  a 
contemporary  Christian  writer,  who,  as  canon  in  the 
cathedral  of  Bremen, — under  the  bishop  of  which  all 
the  northern  bishops  stood  at  first, — must  have  had 
the  best  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
paganism  of  the  North,  Thor  is  stated  to  be  seated 
on  the  throne  as  the  supreme  deity,  and  Odin  and 
Friggia  on  each  side  as  the  minor  deities  in  this  pagan 
trinity ;  and  the  temple  is  stated  to  have  been  most 
noble,  and  adorned  with  gold.  This  temple  was  con- 
verted into  a  Christian  church  by  Olaf  the  Swede 
about  1026;  and  Severin,  an  Englishman,  was  the 
first  bishop.  It  was  plundered  of  all  its  wealth,  pagan 
and  ChristiaiJ,  by  King  Stenkil,  the  son  of  King  Ingve, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  89 

about  the  year  1085;  and  set  fire  to,  and  the  stone    55\?|'e^iJ[; 
walls  only  left.     Kinsr  Swerker  I.  restored  it  about      

,  Chap.  II. 

1139,  and  had  it  consecrated,  and  dedicated  to  Saint 
Laurence.  This  church  appears  to  be  the  only  build- 
ing from  which  the  extent  at  least,  if  not  the  magni- 
ficence of  the  temples  of  the  pagan  religion  of  the 
North,  may  be  guessed  at.  It  stands  at  Gamle  Upsal 
(Old  Upsal),  about  two  miles  north  of  the  present 
town  of  Upsal,  at  the  end  of  an  extensive  plain. 
Around  Gamle  Upsal — now  consisting  of  this  church, 
the  minister's  house,  and  two  or  three  cottages  — 
there  are,  according  to  Professor  Yerelius,  in  his  notes 
on  the  Herverar  Saga,  tumuli  to  the  number  of  six 
hundred  and  sixty-nine,  besides  many  which  have  been 
levelled  for  cultivation.  Reckoning  the  chain  of  such 
hillocks  between  the  town  of  Upsal  and  Gamle  Upsal, 
that,  or  even  a  greater  number  of  those  tumuli,  may 
be  conceded  to  the  antiquary.  Three  of  them,  close 
to  Gamle  Upsal,  are  called  Kongs-hogarne  (the  king's 
mounds);  and  one,  oblong  and  flattened  at  the  top,  is 
Tings-hogen  (the  Thing's  mound).  The  circumference 
of  these  mounds  at  the  base  is  about  three  hundred 
and  fifty  paces,  and  the  ascent  on  any  side  takes  about 
seventy-five  steps ;  so  that  the  perpendicular  height 
may  be  about  ninety  feet.  It  may  also  be  conceded 
to  the  antiquary  that  these  mounds  are  works  of  art, 
in  so  far  that  they  have  been  reduced  to  regular  shape 
by  the  hands  of  man,  and  have  been  used  as  places  of 
interment,  and  still  more  as  places  for  addressing  a 
multitude  from — the  steep  slopes  close  to  each  other 
admitting  of  great  numbers  sitting  or  standing  within 
sight  and  hearing  of  a  person  addressing  them.  But 
whoever  looks  over  this  chain  of  sand-hills  at  the  end 
of  a  plain  which  has  been  a  lake  or  mire  at  no  distant 
geological  period,  and  with  a  mire  or  morass,  now 
called  Myrby  Trask  on  the  other  side  of  it,  will  doubt 
whether  these  mounds  be  not  originally  of  natural 


90 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  II. 


formation.     He  is  struck  at  least  with  the  conviction 
that  not  only  in  other  countries,  but  in  Sweden  itself 
in  particular,  such  formations  of  small  ridges,  and  hil- 
locks of  gravel,  sand,  and  rolled  stones,  upon  a  tongue 
of  land  which  has  originally  divided  two  lakes,  are 
of  most  frequent  occurrence.      Here,   about  Upsal, 
man  has  availed  himself  of  a  chain  of  mounds  formed 
by  nature ;  and,  as  a  natural  feature  of  ground,  they 
account  for  the  selection  of  Gamle  Upsal  in  the  earliest 
ages  for  the  seat  of  government.     With  a  lake  or 
mire  on  each  side,  a  narrow  tongue  of  land  dotted 
with  small  eminences   behind  each    other   gave  the 
defenders  a  succession  of  strong  posts  to  retire  upon ; 
and  when  missiles  of  very  short  range,  and  spear, 
sword,  or  battle-axe,  and  fighting  hand  to  hand,  were 
the  only  weapons  and  modes  of  fighting,  the  advantage 
of  the  higher  ground  was  the  great  object  in  tactics. 
Gamle  Upsal  would  be  strong  when  the  country  was 
covered  with  wood,  and  the  flat  ground  was  a  flooded 
morass.     Of  the  old  buildings,  or  town,  no  vestiges 
remain.     Of  the  temple  some   of  the  walls  are  sup- 
posed to  be  included  in  the  present  church  ;  and  the 
old  foundations  have  been  traced  by  Kudbeck  and 
Peringskiold.     Its  extreme  length  has  not  exceeded 
one  hundred  and  twenty  feet ;  and  the  rough  unhewn 
small  stones  of  such  walls  as  may  possibly  have  been 
parts  of  the  old  structure  do  not  tell  of  much  archi- 
tectural magnificence.     The  arches,   whether  of  the 
pagan  structure,  or  of  the  re-edification  in  1139,  arc 
the  round  Saxon  arch  ;  and  the  whole  is  less  than  an 
ordinary  parish   church  in  England.      An  exterior 
line  is  said  by  antiquaries  to  have  surrounded  the 
building,  and  to  have  been  the  golden  ring,  chain,  or 
serpent   surrounding  the  temple  of   Odin  in  scaldic 
poetry ;  but  this  has  had  no  foundation  but  in  their 
fancy.     A  wooden  palisade  may,  no  doubt,  have  sur- 
rounded the  temple,  with  the  tops  of  it  painted  or 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  91 

gilded ;  for  the  Northmen  appear  to  have  been  pro-  JJ^I^^f;; 
fuse  in  gilding,  from  the  descriptions  of  their  war  — _ 
vessels  with  gilded  sides  and  prows  ;  and  the  scalds, 
in  their  symbolical  inflated  language,  may  have  called 
this  the  serpent  or  dragon  of  Thor :  but  wood-work 
leaves  no  trace  to  posterity,  and  of  stone-work  no 
mark  remains  of  any  exterior  circumvallation  ;  and  it 
must  be  confessed  that  no  trace  remains  in  this  local- 
ity of  magnificence  belonging  to  the  paganism  of  the 
North.  The  gold  chains,  bracelets,  armlets,  anklets — 
too  small  for  men,  and  of  exquisite  workmanship — 
which  have  been  found  in  the  North,  and  are  pre- 
served in  the  museums  of  Copenhagen,  Christiania, 
and  Stockholm,  if  they  really  belonged  to  northern 
idols,  and  were  not  rather  the  hoarded  plunder  of 
vikings  gathered  in  more  civiUsed  or  refined  lands, 
or  of  Yseringer  returned  from  Constantinople,  give  a 
much  higher  idea  of  the  splendour  of  the  pagan  reli- 
gion of  Odin  than  any  architectural  remains  in  Scan- 
dinavia. The  sites  of  Sigtuna  and  of  Birca — now 
Old  Sigtuna,  mentioned  by  Adam  of  Bremen  in  the 
above  extract — are  at  the  head  of  the  Ma3lare  lake, 
and  would  well  deserve  the  careful  examination  of 
the  antiquarian  traveller.  Walls  are  still  standing 
there  which  have  at  least  the  interest  of  being  among 
the  oldest  architectural  fragments  of  the  North. 

The  most  permanent  remains  of  the  Odin  religion 
are  to  be  found  in  the  usages  and  language  of  the 
descendants  of  the  Odin  worshippers.  All  the  de- 
scendants of  the  great  Saxon  race  retain  the  names  of 
three  days  of  the  week  —  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and 
Friday  —  from  the  Odin  religion.  Tuesday,  perhaps, 
or  Diss~day,  on  which  the  ofi^erings  to  Fate  were  made, 
and  the  courts  of  justice  held,  may  belong  also  to  the 
number.  Yule  is  a  pagan  festival  kept  in  the  pagan 
way,  Avith  merriment  and  good  cheer,  all  over  the 
Saxon  world.     Beltan  is  kept  on  Midsummer- day,  all 


92  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


Chap.  II. 


DISSERT.  ^^^^  ^^^  north  of  Europe,  by  lighting  iires  on  the 
hills,  and  other  festivities.  It  is  but  Avithin  these 
fifty  years  that  trolls  or  sea-trows,  and  finmen  and 
dwarfs,  disappeared  in  the  northern  parts  of  Scotland. 
Mara  (the  nightmare)  still  rides  the  modern  Saxon  in 
his  sleep,  and  under  the  same  name  nearly  as  she 
did  the  Yngling  king  Yanland  ;  and  the  evil  one  in 
the  Odin  mythology,  Nokke,  keeps  his  ground,  in  the 
speech  and  invocations  of  our  common  people,  as  Old 
Nick,  in  spite  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Chris- 
tian Knowledge.  It  is  curious  to  observe  how  much 
more  enduring  ideas  are  than  things — the  intellectual 
than  the  material  objects  that  mark  the  existence  of 
the  human  species.  Stone -work,  and  gold,  and  statues, 
and  all  material  remains  of  this  once  general  religion 
of  the  North,  have  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the 
earth ;  yet  words  and  ideas  belonging  to  it  remain. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  religion  of  Odin,  as  in 
that  of  Mahomet,  women  appear  to  have  had  no  part 
in  the  future  life.  We  find  no  allusion  to  any  Valhalla 
for  the  female  virtues.  The  Paradise  of  Mahomet 
and  the  Valhalla  of  Odin  are  the  same ;  only  the  one 
offers  sensual  and  the  other  warlike  enjoyments  to  the 
happy.  They  both  exclude  females.  This  is  not  the 
only  coincidence.  Odin  appears  to  have  stood  in  the 
same  relation  to  Thor  in  Odinism  that  Mahomet  stands 
in  to  the  Supreme  Being  in  Mahometanism.  The 
family  of  Mahomet,  its  semi-sacred  character,  and  its 
rights,  as  successors  to  the  prophet,  to  the  throne 
and  supremacy  of  temporal  power  over  Mahometans, 
and  Avith  equal  rights  of  succession  in  equal  degrees 
of  affinity  to  this  sacred  source,  is  in  fact  the  Yngling 
dynasty  of  Odinisin.  If  Mahomet  had  existed  400 
years  earlier,  he  would  have  been  in  modern  history 
one  of  the  Odins,  perhaps  the  Odin,  and  the  person 
or  persons  we  call  Odin  would  have  merged  in  him. 
The  coincidence  between  Odinism  and  Mahometanism 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


93 


in  the  ideas  of  a  future  state,  in  the  exclusion  of 
females  from  it,  in  the  hereditary  succession  of  a 
family  to  sacred  and  temporal  power  and  function, 
show  a  coincidence  in  the  ideas  and  elements  of  society 
among  the  people  among  whom  the  two  religions  flou- 
rished ;  and  this  coincidence  is  perhaps  sufficiently 
strong  to  prove  that  the  religion  of  Odin  must  have 
sprung  up  originally  in  the  East  among  the  same 
ideas  and  social  elements  as  Mahometanism.  The 
rapid  conquest  by  Christianity  over  Odinism,  about 
the  beginning  of  the  11th  century,  proves  that  the 
latter  was  not  indigenous,  but  imported,  and  belonged 
to  difl*erent  physical  circumstances  and  a  different 
social  state.  The  exclusion  of  females  from  a  future 
life,  and  their  virtues  from  reward,  was  not  suited  to 
the  physical  circumstances  under  which  men  live  in 
the  North,  although  among  a  people  living  on  horse- 
back in  the  plains  of  Asia  the  female  may  hold  no 
higher  social  estimation  than  the  horse.  Christianity, 
by  including  the  female  sex  in  its  benefits,  could  not 
but  prevail  in  the  North  over  Odinism. 

The  Odin  worship  was  not  the  only  form  of  pagan- 
ism in  the  north  of  Europe.  We  find  in  chapter 
143.  of  the  "  Saga  of  Saint  Olaf,"  an  account  of  an 
expedition  of  Karl  and  Gunstein  round  the  North 
Cape  to  Biarmaland,  or  the  coast  of  the  White  Sea ; 
and  after  trading  for  skins  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dwina, 
where  Archangel  now  stands,  of  their  proceeding, 
when  the  fair  was  over,  to  plunder  the  temple  and 
idol  of  Jomala.  They  took  a  cup  of  silver  coins  that 
rested  on  his  knee,  a  gold  ornament  that  was  round 
his  neck,  and  treasure  that  was  buried  with  the  chiefs 
interred  there,  and  retired  to  their  ships.  If  this 
Jomala  had  been  Tlior  or  Odin,  these  vikings  would 
not  have  plundered  his  temple,  especially  as  one  of 
them,  Thorer  Hund,  was  a  zealous  Odin  worshipper, 
and  a  martyr  at  last  to  his  faith.     We  find,  on  the 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  II. 


94 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELTM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  1 1. 


Baltic  side  of  the  country,  that  the  Slavonic  tribe  who 
inhabit  Esthonia  had  a  Jomala,  according  to  Kohl's 
"  Reise  in  der  Deutch-Russisch  Ostsee  Provinzen," 
1842  ;  and  the  name  of  Jomsburg  given  to  the  fortress 
of  that  singular  association  the  Jomsburg  Yikings 
on  the  island  of  Wollin,  off  the  coast  of  Esthonia, 
seems  to  have  had  the  same  origin.  The  Joms-Yikings 
were  a  military  association  of  pirates  inhabiting  the 
castle  of  Jomsburg,  professing  celibacy  and  obedience 
to  their  chief,  and  very  similar  to  the  orders  of  knights 
—  as  the  Teutonic  order,  and  that  of  Rhodes  and  the 
Templars — which  appeared  in  Europe  a  century  or  two 
later ;  but  these  pirate-knights  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  in  any  way  connected  with  the  religion  of  Odin, 
or  of  Jomala.  The  Laplanders  and  Einlanders  appear 
to  have  worshipped  Jomala*  also;  and  he  appears  to 
have  been  altogether  a  Slavonic,  not  a  Saxon  god. 
From  the  account  of  the  expedition  to  Biarm aland, 
the  temple  and  idol  of  this  worship  must  have  been  as 
rich,  and  the  attendance  of  guards  or  priests  on  the 
temple  much  greater  than  in  the  Odin  worship  in 
Norway  in  that  age,  viz.  the  beginning  of  the  11th 
century. 


*  Jomala  is  still  the  name  of  the  Deity — of  God — among  theLaplanders 
and  Finlanders,  according  to  Geyer. — Swenske  Folket's  Hist.  p.  Q6. 


KINGS   OF   NOKWAY.  95 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  III. 


CHAP.  HI. 

OF   THE    SOCIAL   CONDITION    OF   THE   NORTHMEN. 

If  the  historical  sagas  tell  us  little  concerning  the  Pf^ll'^y^ 
religion  and  religious  establishments  of  the  pagan 
Northmen,  they  give  us  incidentally  a  great  deal  of 
curious  and  valuable  information  about  their  social 
condition  and  institutions  ;  and  these  are  of  great 
interest,  because  they  are  the  nearest  sources  to  which 
we  can  trace  almost  all  that  we  call  Anglo-Saxon  in 
our  own  social  condition,  institutions,  national  cha- 
racter, and  spirit.  The  following  observations  are 
picked  up  from  the  sagas.  The  reader  of  Snorro 
Sturleson's  ''  Heimskringla  "  has  before  him  the  facts, 
or  narratives,  and  can  see  himself  whether  the  follow- 
ing inferences  from  them  are  warranted,  and  the  views 
given  of  the  singular  state  of  society  among  the  North- 
men correctly  drawn. 

The  lowest  class  in  the  community  were  the  Thraell 
(  Thralls,  slaves) .  They  were  the  prisoners  captured  by 
the  vikings  at  sea  on  piratical  cruises,  or  carried  off 
from  the  coasts  of  foreign  countries  in  marauding  ex- 
peditions. These  captives  were,  if  not  ransomed  by 
their  friends,  bought  and  sold  at  regular  slave  markets. 
The  owners  could  kill  them  without  any  fine,  mulct, 
or  manbod  to  the  king,  as  in  the  case  of  the  murder 
or  manslaughter  of  a  free  man.  King  Olaf  Tryggves- 
son,  in  his  childhood,  his  mother  Astrid,  and  his  foster- 
father  Thorolf,  were  captured  by  an  Esthonian  viking, 
as  they  were  crossing  the  sea  from  Sweden  on  their 
way  to  Novogorod,  and  were  divided  among  the  crew, 
and  sold.     An  Esthonian  man  called  Klerkon  got  Olaf 


96  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    and  Thorolf  as  his  share  of  the  booty ;  but  Astrid  was 
separated  from  her  son  Olaf  then  only  three  years  of 

Chap   III  J  J 

age.  Klerkon  thought  Thorolf  too  old  for  a  slave, 
and  that  no  work  would  be  got  out  of  him  to  repay 
his  food,  and  therefore  killed  him;  but  sold  the  boy 
to  a  man  called  Klaerk  for  a  goat.  A  peasant  called 
Reas  bought  him  from  Klasrk  for  a  good  cloak ;  and 
he  remained  in  slavery  until  he  was  accidentally  re- 
cognised by  his  uncle,  who  was  in  the  service  of  the 
Russian  king,  and  was  by  him  taken  to  the  court  of 
Novogorod,  where  he  grew  up.  His  mother  Astrid, 
apparently  long  afterwards,  was  recognised  by  a  Nor- 
wegian merchant  called  Lodin  at  a  slave  market  to 
which  she  had  been  brought  for  sale.  Lodin  offered 
to  purchase  her,  and  carry  her  home  to  Norway,  if 
she  would  accept  of  him  in  marriage,  which  she  joy- 
fully agreed  to;  Lodin  being  a  man  of  good  birth,  who 
sometimes  went  on  expeditions  as  a  merchant,  and 
sometimes  on  viking  cruises.  On  her  return  to  Nor- 
way her  friends  approved  of  the  match  as  suitable ; 
and  when  her  son,  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  came  to 
the  throne,  Lodin  and  his  sons  by  Astrid  were  in  high 
favour.  This  account  of  the  capturing,  selling,  and 
buying  slaves,  and  killing  one  worn  out,  is  related,  as 
it  would  be  at  present  in  the  streets  of  Washington, 
as  an  ordinary  matter.  Slavery  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  at  this  period,  namely,  in  the  last  half  of  the 
10th  century,  appears  to  have  become  rather  an  ad- 
scriptio  glehce  —  the  man  sold  or  transferred  with  the 
land  —  than  a  distinct  saleable  property  in  the  person 
of  the  slave ;  at  least  we  hear  of  no  slave  markets  in 
England  at  which  slaves  were  bought  and  sold.  In 
Norway  this  class  appears  to  have  been  better  treated 
than  on  the  south  side  of  the  Baltic,  and  to  have  had 
some  rights.  Lodin  had  to  ask  his  slave  Astrid  to 
accept  of  him  in  marriage.  We  find  them  also  in  the 
first  half  of  the  1 1th  century,   at  least  under  some 


KINGS    OF   NOKWAY.  97 

masters,  considered  capable  of  acquiring  and  holding  Jfs^^jJJ, 
property  of  their  own.  When  Asbiorn  came  from  — - 
Halogaland  in  the  north  of  Norway  to  purchase  a 
cargo  of  meal  and  malt,  of  which  articles  King  Olaf 
the  Saint,  fearing  a  scarcity,  had  prohibited  the  ex- 
portation from  the  south  of  Norway,  he  went  to  his 
relation  Erling  Skialgsson,  a  peasant  or  hondi^  who 
was  married  to  a  sister  of  the  late  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson,  and  was  a  man  of  great  power.  Erling  told 
Asbiorn  that  in  consequence  of  the  law  he  could 
not  supply  him,  but  that  his  thralls  or  slaves  could 
probably  sell  him  as  much  as  he  required  for  loading 
his  vessel;  adding  the  remarkable  observation,  that 
they,  the  slaves,  are  not  bound  by  the  law  and  coun- 
try regulation  like  other  men,  —  evidently  from  the 
notion  that  they  were  not  parties,  like  other  men,  to 
the  making  the  law  in  the  Thing.  It  is  told  of  this 
Erling,  who  was  one  of  the  most  considerable  men  in 
the  country  and  brother-in-law  of  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson,  although  of  the  bonder  or  peasant  class,  that 
he  had  always  90  free-born  men  in  his  house,  and 
200  or  more  when  Earl  Hakon,  then  regent  of  the 
country,  came  into  the  neighbourhood;  that  he  had 
a  ship  of  32  banks  of  oars;  and  when  he  went  on 
a  viking  cruise,  or  in  a  levy  with  the  king,  had  200 
men  at  least  mth  him.  He  had  always  on  his  farm 
thirty  slaves,  besides  other  workpeople  ;  and  he  gave 
them  a  certain  task  as  a  day's  work  to  do,  and  gave 
them  leave  to  work  for  themselves  in  the  twilight,  or 
in  the  night.  He  also  gave  them  land  to  sow,  and 
gave  them  the  benefit  of  their  own  crops ;  and  he  put 
upon  them  a  certain  value,  so  that  they  could  redeem 
themselves  from  slavery,  which  some  could  do  the 
first  or  second  year,  and  "  all  who  had  any  luck  could 
do  it  in  the  third  year."  With  this  money  Erling 
bought  new  slaves,  and  he  settled  those  who  had  thus 
obtained  their  freedom  on  his  newly  cleared  land,  and 

VOL.  I.  H 


Chap.  III. 


98  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    found  employment  for  them  in  useful  trades,  or  in  the 

DISSERT.  .  ^        *^  .  .  . 

herring  fishery,  for  which  he  furnished  them  Avith 
nets  and  salt.  The  same  course  of  management  is 
ascribed  in  the  Saga  of  Saint  Olaf  to  his  stepfather, 
Sigurd  Syr,  who  is  celebrated  for  his  prudence,  and 
wisdom,  and  skill  in  husbandry ;  and  it  has  probably 
been  general  among  the  slaveholders.  The  slaves 
who  had  thus  obtained  their  freedom  would  belong  to 
what  appears  to  have  been  a  distinct  class  from  the 
peasants  or  bonders  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  slaves  on 
the  other — the  class  of  unfree  men. 

This  class  —  the  unfree — appears  to  have  con- 
sisted of  those  who,  not  being  udal-born  to  any  land 
in  the  country,  so  as  to  be  connected  with,  and  have 
an  interest  in,  the  succession  to  any  family  estate, 
were  not  free  of  the  Things ;  were  not  entitled  to  ap- 
pear and  deliberate  in  those  assembles ;  were  not 
Thingsmen.  This  class  of  unfree  is  frequently  men- 
tioned in  general  levies  for  repelling  invasion,  when 
all  men,  free  and  unfree,  are  summoned  to  appear  in 
arms  ;  and  the  term  unfree  evidently  refers  to  men 
who  had  personal  freedom,  and  were  not  thralls,  as 
the  latter  could  only  be  collected  to  a  levy  by  their 
masters.  This  class  would  include  all  the  cottars  on 
the  land  paying  a  rent  in  work  upon  the  farm  to  the 
peasant,  who  was  udal-born  proprietor;  and,  under 
the  name  of  housemen,  this  class  of  labourers  in  hus- 
bandry still  exists  on  every  farm  in  Norway.  It 
would  include  also,  the  house-carls,  or  freeborn  in- 
door men,  of  whom  Erling,  we  see,  always  kept  ninety 
about  him.  They  were,  in  fact,  his  body-guard  and 
garrison,  the  equivalent  to  the  troop  maintained  by 
the  feudal  baron  of  Germany  in  his  castle ;  and  they 
followed  the  bondi  or  peasant  in  his  summer  excur- 
sions of  piracy,  or  on  the  levy  when  called  out  by  the 
king.  They  appear  to  have  been  free  to  serve  whom 
they  pleased.     We  find  many  of  the  class  of  bonders 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


99 


who  kept  a  suite  of  eighty  or  ninety  men ;  as  Erling,    J{|fER^; 
Harek  of  Thioto,  and  others.     Swein,  of  the   little  ^  — :,_ 

.  .1         Chap,  111. 

isle  of  Gairsay  in  Orkney,  kept,  we  are  told  in  the 
Orkneyinga  Saga,  eighty  men  all  winter ;  and  as  we 
see  the  owner  of  this  farm,  which  could  not  produce 
bread  for  one  fourth  of  that  number,  trusting  for 
many  years  to  his  success  in  piracy  for  subsisting  his 
retainers,  we  must  conclude  that  they  formed  a  nu- 
merous class  of  the  community.  This  class  would 
also  include  workpeople,  labourers,  fishermen,  trades- 
men, and  others  about  towns  and  farms,  or  rural 
townships,  who,  although  personally  free  and  free- 
born,  not  slaves,  were  unfree  in  respect  of  the  rights 
possessed  by  the  class  of  bonders,  landowners,  or  pea- 
sants, in  the  Things.  They  had  the  protection  and 
civil  rights  imparted  by  laws,  but  not  the  right  to  a 
voice  in  the  enactment  of  the  laws,  or  regulation  of 
public  affairs  in  the  Things  of  the  country.  They 
were,  in  their  rights,  in  the  condition  of  the  German 
population  at  the  present  day. 

The  class  above  the  unfree  in  civil  rights,  the  free 
peasant-proprietors,  or  bonder  class,  were  the  most 
important  and  influential  in  the  community.  We 
have  no  word  in  English,  or  in  any  other  modern 
language,  exactly  equivalent  to  the  word  hondi^  be- 
cause the  class  itself  never  existed  among  us.  Pea- 
sant does  not  express  it ;  because  we  associate  with 
the  word  peasant  the  idea  of  inferior  social  impor- 
tance to  the  feudal  nobility,  gentry,  and  landed  pro- 
prietors of  a  country,  and  this  bonder  class  was  itself 
the  highest  class  in  the  country.  Yeoman,  or,  in  Cum- 
berland, statesman,  expresses  their  condition  only 
relatively  to  the  portions  of  land  owned  by  them ;  not 
their  social  position  as  the  highest  class  of  landowners. 
If  the  Americans  had  a  word  to  express  the  class  of 
small  landholders  in  their  old  settled  states  who  live 
on  their  little  properties,  have  the  highest  social  in- 

H  2 


100  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


CUAP.  III. 


D?ssERT  fl^^^ce  in  the  country,  and  are  its  highest  class,  and, 
although  without  family  aggrandisement  by  primo- 
geniture succession,  retain  family  distinction  and 
descent,  and  even  family  pride,  but  divide  their  pro- 
perties on  the  udal  principle  among  their  children,  it 
would  express  more  justly  what  the  bonder  class 
were  than  the  words  landholder,  yeoman,  statesman, 
peasant-proprietor,  or  peasant.  In  the  following 
translation  of  the  Heimskringla,  where  the  word  pea- 
sant is  used  for  the  word  hondi^^  the  reader  will 
have  to  carry  in  mind  that  these  peasants  were,  in 
fact,  an  hereditary  aristocracy,  comprehending  the 
great  mass  of  the  population,  holding  their  little  es- 
tates by  a  far  more  independent  tenure  than  the 
feudal  nobility  of  other  countries,  and  having  their 
land  strictly  entailed  on  their  own  families  and  kin, 
and  with  much  family  pride,  and  much  regard  for 
and  record  of  their  family  descent  and  alliances,  be- 
cause each  little  estate  was  entailed  on  each  peasant's 
whole  family  and  kin.  Udal  right  was,  and  is  to  this 
day  in  Norway,  a  species  of  entail,  in  realty,  in  the 
family  that  is  udal-born  to  it.  The  udal  land  could 
not  be  alienated  by  sale,  gift  to  the  church,  esheat  to 
a  superior,  forfeiture,  or  by  any  other  casualty,  from 
the  kindred  who  were  udal-born  to  it ;  and  they  had, 
however  distantly  connected,  an  eventual  right  of 
succession  vested  in  them  superior  to  any  right  a 
stranger  in  blood  could  acquire.  The  udal-born  to  a 
piece  of  land  could  evict  any  other  possessor,  and, 

*  Bondi  (in  the  plural  baender)  does  not  suit  the  English  ear,  and 
there  is  no  reasoning  with  the  ear  in  matters  of  language.  Bonder, 
although  it  be  plural,  is  therefore  used  singularly ;  and  bonders,  although 
it  be  a  double  plural,  to  express  more  than  one  of  the  bondi.  The  word 
itself,  bondi  or  buandir,  seems  derived  from  bu,  a  country  dwelling ;  and 
signifying  also  the  stock,  wealth,  affairs,  and  all  that  belongs  to  hus- 
bandry. The  word  bu  is  still  retained  in  Orkney  and  Shetland,  to  express 
the  principal  farm  and  farm-house  of  a  small  township  or  property,  the 
residence  of  the  proprietor;  and  is  used  in  Denmark  and  Norway  to  ex- 
press stock,  or  farm  stock  and  substance. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  101 


DISSERT. 
Chap,  III. 


until  a  very  late  period,  even  mtliout  any  repayment  ^f^J^J^^- 
of  what  the  new  possessor  having  no  udal  right 
may  have  paid  for  it,  or  laid  out  upon  it ;  and  at  the 
present  day  a  right  of  redemption  within  a  certain 
number  of  years,  is  competent  to  those  udal-born  to 
an  estate  which  has  been  sold  out  of  a  family.  The 
right  to  the  crown  of  Norway  itself  was  udal-born 
right  in  a  certain  family  or  race,  traced  from  Odin 
down  to  Harald  Haarfager  through  the  Yngling 
dynasty,  as  a  matter  of  religious  faith ;  but  from  Harald 
Haarfager  as  a  fixed  legal  and  historical  point.  All 
who  were  of  his  blood  were  udal-born  to  the  Norwe- 
gian crown,  and  with  equal  rights  of  succession  in 
equal  degrees  of  propinquity.  The  eldest  son  had  no 
exclusive  right,  either  by  law  or  in  public  opinion,  to 
the  whole  succession,  and  the  kingdom  was  more  than 
once  divided  equally  among  all  the  sons.  This  prin- 
ciple of  equal  succession  appears  to  have  been  so  rooted 
in  the  social  arrangement  and  public  mind,  that  not- 
withstanding all  the  evils  it  produced  in  the  succession 
to  the  crown  by  internal  warfare  between  brothers,  it 
seems  never  to  have  been  shaken  as  a  principle  of 
right ;  and  the  kings  who  had  laboured  the  most  to 
unite  the  whole  country  into  one  sovereignty,  as 
Harald  Haarfager,  were  the  first  to  divide  it  again 
among  their  sons.  One  cause  of  this  may  have  been 
the  impossibility,  among  all  classes,  from  the  king  to 
the  peasant,  of  providing  otherwise  for  the  younger 
branches  of  a  family  than  by  giving  them  a  portion 
of  the  land  itself,  or  of  the  products  of  the  land  paid 
instead  of  money  taxes  to  the  crown.  Legitimacy  of 
birth  was  held  of  little  account,  owing  probably  to 
marriage  not  being  among  the  Odin- worshippers  a 
religious  as  well  as  a  civil  act ;  for  we  find  all  the 
children,  illegitimate  as  well  as  legitimate,  esteemed 
equal  in  udal-born  right  even  to  the  throne  itself;  and 
although  high  descent  on  the  mother's  side  also  ap- 

11  3 


102  CHEONICLE   OF   THE 

ofssERT    P^^^^  ^^  have  been  esteemed,  it  was  no  obstacle  even 

to  the  succession  to  the  crown  that  the  mother,  as  in 

the  case  of  Magnus  the  Good,  had  been  a  slave.  This 
was  the  consequence  of  polygamy,  in  which,  as  in  the 
East,  the  kings  indulged.  Harald  Haarfager  had  nine 
wives  at  once,  and  many  concubines ;  and  every  king, 
even  King  Olaf  the  Saint,  had  concubines  as  well 
as  wives ;  and  we  find  polygamy  indulged  in  down  to 
about  1130,  when  Sigurd  the  Crusader's  marriage 
with  Cecilia,  at  the  time  his  queen  was  alive  and  not 
divorced,  was  opposed  by  the  Bishop  of  Bergen,  who 
would  not  celebrate  it ;  but  nevertheless  the  priest 
of  Stavanger  performed  the  ceremony,  on  the  king's 
duly  paying  the  church  for  the  indulgence.  Polygamy 
appears  not  to  have  been  confined  to  kings  and  great 
men ;  for  we  find  in  the  old  Icelandic  law  book,  called 
the  "  Grey  Goose,"  that,  in  determining  the  mutual 
rights  of  succession  of  persons  born  in  either  country, 
Norway  or  Iceland,  in  the  other  country,  it  is  pro- 
vided that  children  born  in  Norway  in  bigamy  should 
have  equal  right  as  legitimate  children,  —  which  also 
proves  that  in  Iceland  civilisation  was  advanced  so 
much  farther  than  in  Norway  that  bigamy  was  not 
lawful  there,  and  its  ofi'spring  not  held  legitimate. 
Each  little  estate  was  the  kingdom  in  miniature, 
sometimes  divided  among  children,  and  again  reunited 
by  succession  of  single  successors  by  udal-born  right 
vesting  it  in  one.  These  landowners,  with  their  entailed 
estates,  old  families,  and  extensive  kin  or  clanship, 
might  be  called  the  nobility  of  the  country,  but  that, 
from  their  great  numbers  and  small  properties,  the 
tendency  of  the  equal  succession  to  land  being  to  pre- 
vent the  concentration  of  it  into  great  estates,  they 
were  the  peasantry.  In  social  influence  they  had  no 
class,  like  the  aristocracy  of  feudal  countries,  above 
them.  All  the  legislation,  and  the  administration  of 
law  also,  was  in  their  hands.  They  alone  conferred 
the  croAvn  at  their  Things.     No  man,  however  clear 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  103 

and  undisputed  his  right  of  succession,  ventured  to  J^s^^\J^; 
assume  the  kingly  title,  dignity,  and  power,  but  by  — - 
the  vote  and  concurrence  of  a  Thing.  He  was  pro- 
posed by  a  bonder ;  his  right  explained ;  and  he  was 
received  by  the  Thing  before  he  could  levy  subsist- 
ence, or  men  and  aid,  or  exert  any  act  of  kingly  power 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Thing.  After  being 
received  and  proclaimed  at  the  Ore  Thing  held  at 
Drontheim  as  the  general  or  sole  king  of  Norway, 
the  upper  king,  —  which  that  Thing  alone  had  the 
right  to  do, — he  had  still  to  present  himself  to  each  of 
the  other  district  Things,  of  which  there  were  four, 
to  entitle  him  to  exercise  royal  authority,  or  enjoy 
the  rights  of  royalty  within  their  districts.  The 
bonders  of  the  district,  who  had  voice  and  influence 
in  those  Things  by  family  connection  and  personal 
merit,  were  the  first  men  in  the  country.  Their  social 
importance  is  illustrated  by  the  remarkable  fact,  that 
established  kings  —  as,  for  instance.  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson — married  their  sisters  and  daughters  to  power- 
ful bonders,  while  others  of  their  sisters  and  daughters 
were  married  to  the  kings  of  Sweden  and  Denmark. 
Erling  the  bonder  refused  the  title  of  Earl  when  he 
married  Astrid,  the  king's  sister.  Lodin  married  the 
widow  of  a  king,  and  the  mother  of  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson.  There  was  no  idea  of  disparagement,  or  in- 
feriority, in  such  alliances ;  which  shows  how  impor- 
tant and  influential  this  class  was  in  the  community. 
It  is  here,  in  these  assemblies  or  Things  of  the 
Northmen,  the  immediate  predecessors  of  the  Norman 
conquerors,  and  their  ancestors  also, — by  which,  how- 
ever rudely,  legislation  and  all  parliamentary  prin- 
ciples were  exercised, — that  we  must  look  for  the  origin 
of  our  parliaments,  and  the  spirit  and  character  of 
our  people ;  on  which,  and  not  on  the  mere  forms,  our 
constitution  is  founded.  The  Wittenagemoth  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Heptarchic   kings   were  not,   like   the 

H  4 


104  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


Chap.  III. 


J^Jl^l^L"^;     Thiners  of  the  Northmen,  existing:  and  influential  as- 

DISSERT.  o  /     ^  o  ^ 

semblies  of  the  people  meeting  suojure  at  stated  times, 
enacting  and  administering  laws,  and  so  interwoven 
with  the  whole  social  and  political  idiosyncracy  of  the 
people,  that  the  state  could  have  no  movement  or  ex- 
istence but  through  such  assemblies.  The  Wittenage- 
moth,  as  the  name  implies,  appears  to  have  been  merely 
a  council  of  the  wise  and  important  men  of  the  coun- 
try, selected  by  the  king  to  meet,  consult,  and  advise 
with  him,  —  which  is  as  different  from  a  Thing  as  a 
cabinet  council  from  a  parliament.  The  Northmen 
who  invaded  and  colonised  the  kingdom  of  Northum- 
berland, had  entirely  expelled  other  occupants  in  the 
9th  century.  The  Anglo-Saxons  had  fled  before  the 
pagan  and  barbarous  invaders  who  seized  and  settled 
on  the  lands,  and,  from  the  proximity  to  Norway  and 
Denmark,  received  a  rapid  accession  to  their  numbers 
by  the  influx  of  new  settlers,  as  well  as  by  their  own 
increase  of  population.  Normandy  was  only  con- 
quered by  the  Northmen,  but  Northumberland  was 
colonised.  Their  religion,  language,  and  laws  were 
established.  They  had  their  own,  and  not  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  laws :  a  proof  that  they  were  a  population  not 
Anglo-Saxon  in  their  social  institutions.  This  appears 
from  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Elder,  of  Alfred  himself, 
and  from  the  treaties  of  these  kings  with  Guthrun, 
the  leader  or  chief  of  the  Northmen  who  then  occu- 
pied Northumberland.  The  kingdom  of  Northum- 
berland, comprehending  the  present  counties  of  York, 
Durham,  Northumberland,  Cumberland,  Westmore- 
land, and  parts  of  Lancashire ;  East  Anglia  also,  com- 
prehending the  Isle  of  Ely,  Cambridgeshire,  Norfolk, 
and  Sufiblk;  and  the  country  of  the  former  East 
Saxons,  comprehending  Essex,  Middlesex,  and  part  of 
Hertfordshire,  and  also  parts  of  the  northern  and 
southern  extremities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdom  of 
Mercia, — were  so  entirely  occupied  by  Danes,  or  people 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  105 


Chap.  Ill 


of  Danish  descent,  that  they  were  under  Danish,  not  fj'f|.y,J.5-. 
AnHo- Saxon  law.  From  the  first  invasions  of  the 
Danes  in  787,  or  from  the  end  of  the  8th  century  to 
the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest  in  1066,  or  nearly 
300  years,  the  laws  and  usages  of  the  Northmen  had 
prevailed  over  this  large  portion  of  the  island.  This 
kingdom  of  Northumberland  would,  at  the  present 
day,  be  more  populous  and  wealthy  than  either  of  the 
kingdoms  of  Sweden,  Denmark,  Hanover,  Holland, 
Belgium,  Saxony,  or  Wirtemburg,  and  had  no  doubt 
a  proportional  importance  in  those  times.  The  North- 
men, immediately  previous  to  the  Norman  conquest, 
had  conquered  the  whole  of  England,  and  held  it 
from  1003  to  1041,  for  four  successive  reigns ;  viz.  of 
Swein,  Canute  the  Great,  Harald  Harefoot,  and  Har- 
dicanute.  In  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
as  given  by  Lambart  in  1568,  and  republished  by 
Wheloch  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Bede,  1644, 
it  is  stated  that  for  sixty-eight  years  previous  to  the 
Norman  conquest,  these  Anglo-Saxon  laws,  originally 
framed  by  Edgar,  had  been  out  of  use ;  and  when 
William  the  Conqueror,  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign, 
renewed  these  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  he  was 
more  inclined  to  retain  the  laws  of  the  Northmen  then 
in  general  use.  If  we  strike  oiF  Wales,  CoruAvall,  the 
western  borders  towards  Scotland,  and  all  compre- 
hended in  the  kingdom  of  Northumberland,  East  An- 
glia,  and  other  parts  peopled  by  Northmen  and  their 
descendants,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  branch  could  have  been  predominant  in  the 
island,  in  numbers,  power,  and  social  influence ;  or 
could  have  prevailed  to  such  an  extent  over  the  cha- 
racter and  spirit  of  the  population  as  to  bury  all  social 
movement  under  the  apathy  and  superstition  in  which 
they  appear  to  have  been  sunk.  The  rebellions  against 
William  the  Conqueror  and  his  successors  appear  to 
have  been  almost  ahvays  raised,  or  mainly  supported, 


Chap.  III. 


106  CHKONICLE   OF   THE 

PRELIM,  in  the  counties  of  recent  Danish  descent,  not  in  those 
peopled  by  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  race.  The  spirit  and 
character  of  men  having  rights  in  society  were  un- 
doubtedly renewed,  and  kept  alive  in  England,  by  this 
great  infusion  into  the  population  of  people  who  had 
these  rights,  and  the  spirit  and  character  produced  by 
them,  in  their  native  land.  A  new  and  more  vigorous 
branch  was  planted  in  the  country  than  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon.  In  historical  research  it  is  surely  more  rea- 
sonable to  go  to  the  nearest  source  of  the  institutions, 
laws,  and  spirit  of  a  people  —  to  the  recent  and  great 
infusion  into  England  from  the  north,  during  the  9th, 
10th,  and  11th  centuries,  of  men  bred  up  in  a  rude  but 
vigorous  exercise  of  their  rights  in  legislation,  and 
in  all  the  acts  of  their  government — than  to  the^most 
remote,  and  to  trace  in  the  obscure  hints]  of  Tacitus 
of  popular  and  free  institutions  existing  a  thousand 
years  before  in  the  forests  of  Germany,  the  origin  of 
our  parliaments,  constitution,  and  national  character. 
The  German  people,  the  true  unmixed  descendants  of 
the  old  Saxon  race  whom  Tacitus  describes,  never, 
from  the  earliest  date  in  modern  history  to  the  present 
day,  had  a  single  hour  of  religious,  civil,  and  political 
liberty,  as  nations,  or  as  individuals,  —  never  enjoyed 
the  rights  which  the  American  citizen  or  the  British 
subject,  however  imperfectly,  enjoy  in  the  freedom 
of  person,  property,  and  mind,  at  the  present  day,  in 
their  social  condition.  If  the  great  stock  itself  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  has  not  transmitted  to  its  immediate 
posterity  in  its  own  land  the  institutions  of  a  free 
people,  nor  the  spirit,  character,  independence  of  mind, 
on  which  alone  they  can  be  founded  with  stability,  it 
appears  absurd  to  trace  to  that  stock  our  free  institu- 
tions, and  the  principles  in  our  character  and  spirit 
by  which  they  are  maintained,  when  we  find  a  source 
so  much  nearer  from  which  they  would  naturally  flow. 
Our  civil,  religious,  and  political  rights, — the  principles. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  '  107 


DISSKllT. 
Chap.  III. 


spirit,  and  forms  of  legislation  through  which  they   j^'j^l};}^^^; 
work  in  our  social  union,  are  the  legitimate  offspring 
of  the  Things  of  the  Northmen,  not  of  the  Wittenage- 
moth  of  the  Anglo-Saxons — of  the  independent  Norse 
viking,  not  of  the  abject  Saxon  monk. 

It  would  be  a  curious  inquiry  for  the  political  phi- 
losopher to  examine  the  causes  which  produced,  in 
the  10th  century,  such  a  difference  in  the  social  con- 
dition of  the  Northmen,  and  of  the  cognate  Anglo- 
Saxon  branch  in  England  and  Germany.  Physical 
causes  connected  with  the  nature  of  the  country  and 
climate,  as  well  as  the  conventional  causes  of  udal  right, 
and  the  exclusion  of  inheritance  by  primogeniture, 
prevented  the  accumulation  of  land  into  large  estates, 
and  the  rise  of  a  feudal  nobility  like  that  of  Germany. 
The  following  physical  causes  appear  not  only  to  have 
operated  directly  in  preventing  the  growth  of  the 
feudal  system  in  the  country  of  the  Northmen,  but  to 
have  produced  some  of  the  conventional  causes  also 
which  concurred  to  prevent  it. 

The  Scandinavian  peninsula  consists  of  a  vast  table 
of  mountain  land,  too  elevated  in  general  for  cultiva- 
tion, or  even  for  the  pasturage  of  large  herds  or  flocks 
together  in  any  one  locality ;  and  although  sloping 
gently  towards  the  Baltic  or  the  Sound  on  the  Swedish 
side,  and  there  susceptible  of  the  same  inhabitation 
and  husbandry  as  other  countries,  in  as  far  as  clime 
and  soil  will  allow,  on  the  other  side, — the  proper 
country  of  the  Northmen, — throwing  out  toAvards  the 
sea  all  round  huge  prongs  of  rocky  and  lofty  ridges, 
either  totally  bare  of  soil,  or  covered  with  pine  forests, 
growing  apparently  out  of  the  very  rock,  and  with  no 
useful  soil  beneath  them.  The  valleys  and  deep  glens 
between  these  ridges,  which  shoot  up  into  lofty  pin- 
nacles, precipices,  and  mountains,  are  filled  at  the  lower 
end  by  the  ocean,  forming  fiords,  as  these  inlets  of  the 
sea  are  called,  which  run  far  up  into  the  land,  in  some 


Chap.  III. 


108  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

,^?J!fl^-  cases  a  hundred  miles  or  more ;  yet  so  narrow  that  the 
stones,  it  is  said,  rolnng  down  from  the  mountain  slope 
on  one  side  of  such  a  fiord,  are  often  projected  from 
the  steep  overhanging  precipice,  in  which  the  slope 
half-way  down  ends,  across  to  the  opposite  shore. 
These  fiords  in  general,  however,  are  fine  expanses 
or  inland  lakes  of  the  ocean, — calm,  deep,  pure  blue; 
and  shut  in  on  every  side  by  black  precipices  and 
green  forests,  and  with  fair  wooded  islets  sleeping  on 
the  bosom  of  the  water.  These  fiords  are  the  pecu- 
liar and  characteristic  feature  of  Norwegian  scenery. 
Kivers  of  great  volume  of  water,  but  generally  of 
short  and  rapid  course,  pour  into  the  fiords  from  the 
Fielde,  or  high  table-land  behind,  which  forms  the 
body  or  mass  of  the  country.  It  is  on  the  flat  spots 
of  arable  land  on  the  borders  of  these  fiords,  rivers, 
and  the  lakes  into  which  the  rivers  expand,  that  the 
population  lives.  In  some  of  these  river- valleys  and 
sea- valleys,  a  single  farm  of  a  few  acres  of  land  is  only 
found  here  and  there  in  many  miles  of  country,  the 
bare  rock  dipping  at  once  into  the  blue  deep  water, 
and  leaving  no  margin  for  cultivation.  In  others, 
narrow  slips  of  inhabitable  arable  land  extend  some 
way,  but  are  hemmed  in  behind,  on  the  land  side,  by 
the  rocky  ridges  which  form  the  valley ;  and  they  are 
seldom  broad  enough  to  admit  of  two  rows  of  little 
farms,  or  even  of  two  large  fields,  in  the  breadth  be- 
tween the  hill-foot  and  the  water ;  and  in  the  length 
are  often  interrupted  by  some  bare  prong  of  rock 
jutting  from  the  side-ridge  into  the  slip  of  arable  level 
land,  and  dividing  it  from  such  another  slip.  All 
the  land  capable  of  cultivation,  either  with  spade  or 
plough,  has  been  cultivated  from  the  most  remote 
times ;  and  there  is  Httle  room  for  improvement,  be- 
cause it  is  the  ground-rock  destitute  of  soil,  not  merely 
trees  or  loose  rocks  encumbering  the  soil,  that  opposes 
human  industry.     The  httle  estates,  not  averaging 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  109 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  III. 


perhaps  fifty  acres  each  of  arable  land,  are  densely  ^^f^}^^ 
inhabited;  because  the  seasons  for  preparing  the 
ground,  sowing,  and  reaping,  are  so  brief,  that  all 
husbandry  work  must  be  performed  in  the  shortest 
possible  time,  and  consequently  at  the  expense  of 
supporting,  all  the  year,  a  great  many  hands  on  the 
farm  to  perform  it ;  and  the  fishing  in  the  fiord,  river, 
or  lake,  the  summer  pasturage  for  cattle  in  the  distant 
fielde-glens  attached  to  each  little  estate  in  the  in- 
habited country,  and  a  httle  wood-cutting  in  the 
forest,  afford  subsistence  to  many  more  people  than 
the  little  farm  itself  would  require  for  its  cultivation 
in  a  better  clime,  or  could  support  from  its  own  pro- 
duce. The  extent  of  every  little  property  has  been 
settled  for  ages,  and  Avant  of  soil  and  space  prevents 
any  alteration  in  the  extent,  and  keeps  it  within  the 
unchangeable  boundaries  of  rock  and  water.  It  is 
highly  interesting  to  look  at  these  original  little  family 
estates  of  the  men  who,  in  the  9th  and  10th  centuries, 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  finest  countries  of 
Europe, — who  were  the  origin  of  the  men  and  events 
we  see  at  this  day,  and  whose  descendants  are  now 
seated  on  the  thrones  and  in  the  palaces  of  Europe, 
and  in  the  West  are  making  a  new  world  of  social 
arrangements  for  themselves.  The  sites,  and  even 
the  names,  of  the  little  estates  or  gaards  on  which 
these  men  were  born,  remain  unchanged,  in  many 
instances,  to  this  day ;  and  the  posterity  of  the  original 
proprietors  of  the  9th  century  may  reasonably  be  sup- 
posed, in  a  country  in  which  the  land  is  entailed  by 
udal  right  upon  the  family,  to  be  at  this  day  the 
possessors  —  engaged,  however,  now  in  cutting  wood 
for  the  French  or  Newcastle  market,  instead  of  in 
conquering  Normandy  and  Northumberland. 

Some  of  our  great  English  nobility  and  gentry 
leave  their  own  splendid  seats,  parks,  and  estates  in 
England,  to  enjoy  shooting  and  fishing  in  Norway  for 


110  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


DISSKKT, 
Chap.  III. 


PRELIM,  a  few  weeks.  They  are  little  aware  that  they  are 
perhaps  passing  by  the  very  estates  which  their  own 
ancestors  once  ploughed,  —  sleeping  on  the  same  spot 
of  this  earth  on  which  their  forefathers,  a  thousand 
years  ago,  slept,  and  were  at  home ;  men,  too,  as  proud 
then  of  their  high  birth,  of  their  descent,  through 
some  seven-and-twenty  generations,  from  Odin,  or  his 
followers  the  Godar,  as  their  posterity  are  now  of 
having  "  come  in  with  or  before  the  Conqueror."  The 
common  traveller  visiting  this  land  destitute  of  archi- 
tectural remains  of  former  magnificence,  without  the 
temples  and  classical  ruins  of  Italy,  or  the  cathedrals 
and  giant  castles  of  Germany,  will  yet  feel  here  that 
the  memorials  of  former  generations  may  be  materially 
insignificant,  yet  morally  grand.  These  little  farms 
and  houses,  as  they  stand  at  this  day,  were  the  homes 
of  men  whose  rude,  but  just  and  firm  sense  of  their 
civil  and  political  rights  in  society,  is,  in  the  present 
times,  radiating  from  the  spark  of  it  they  kindled  in 
England,  and  working  out  in  every  country  the  eman- 
cipation of  mankind  from  the  thraldom  of  the  insti- 
tutions which  grew  up  under  the  Roman  empire,  and 
still  cover  Italy  and  Germany,  along  with  the  decaying 
ruins  of  the  splendour,  taste,  magnificence,  power, 
and  oppression  of  their  rulers.  Europe  holds  no  me- 
morials of  ancient  historical  events  which  have  been 
attended  by  such  great  results  in  our  times,  as  some 
rude  excavations  in  the  shore-banks  of  the  island  of 
Yigr*,  in  More, — which  are  pointed  out  by  the  finger 
of  tradition  as  the  dry  docks  in  which  the  vessels  of 
Eolf  Ganger,  from  whom  the  fifth  in  descent  was  our 
William  the  Conqueror,  were  drawn  up  in  winter,  and 
from  whence  he  launched  them,  and  set  out  from 
Norway  on  the  expedition  in  which  he  conquered 
Normandy.     The  philosopher  might  seat  himself  be- 

*   Vigroe,  the  isle  of  Vigr,  is  situated  in  Haram  parish,  in  the  baili- 
wick of  Soud  Mor. — StroJim's  Biskryvelse  over  More,  and  Kraft's  Norge. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  Ill 


Chap.  III. 


side  the  historian  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol,  and  p?ELpf- 
with  Rome,  and  all  the  monuments  of  Roman  power 
and  magnificence  under  his  eye,  might  venture  to  ask 
whether  they,  magnificent  and  imposing  as  they  are, 
suggest  ideas  of  greater  social  interest, — are  connected 
with  grander  moral  results  on  the  condition,  well- 
being,  and  civilisation  of  the  human  race  in  every 
land,  than  these  rude  excavations  in  the  isle  of  Vigr, 
which  once  held  Rolf  Ganger's  vessels. 

It  is  evident  that  such  a  country  in  such  a  climate 
never  could  have  afforded  a  rent,  either  in  money  or 
in  natural  products,  for  the  use  of  the  land,  to  a  class 
of  feudal  nobility  possessing  it  in  great  estates,  al- 
though it  may  afford  a  subsistence  to  a  class  of  small 
working  landowners,  like  the  bonders,  giving  their 
o^vn  labour  to  the  cultivation,  and  helping  out  their 
agricultural  means  of  living  with  the  earnings  of  their 
labour  in  other  occupations  —  in  piracy  and  pillage 
on  the  coasts  of  other  countries  in  the  9th  century, 
and  in  the  19th  with  the  cod  fishery,  the  herring 
fishery,  the  wood  trade,  and  other  peaceful  occu- 
pations of  industry.  On  account  of  these  physical 
circumstances — of  a  soil  and  climate  which  afford  no 
surplus  produce  from  land,  after  subsisting  the  need- 
ful labourers,  to  go  as  rent  to  a  landlord — no  powerful 
body  of  feudal  nobility  could  grow  up  in  Norway,  as 
in  other  countries  in  the  middle  ages  ;  and  from  the 
same  causes,  now  in  modern  times,  during  the  400 
years  previous  to  1814  in  which  Denmark  had  held 
Norway,  all  the  encouragement  that  could  be  given 
by  the  Danish  government  to  raising  a  class  of  nobility 
in  Norway  was  unavailing.  Slavery  even  could  not 
exist  in  any  country  in  which  the  labour  of  the  slave 
would  barely  produce  the  subsistence  of  the  slave,  and 
would  leave  no  surplus  gain  from  his  labour  for  a 
master ;  still  less  could  a  nobility,  or  body  of  great 
landowners  drawing  rent,  subsist  where  land  can  barely 


Chap.  III. 


112  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

DESSERT  pi*oduce  subsistence  for  the  labour  which,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  shortness  of  the  seasons,  is  required  in 
very  large  quantity,  in  proportion  to  the  area,  for  its 
cultivation.  We  find,  accordingly,  that  when  the 
viking  trade,  the  occupation  of  piracy  and  pillage, 
was  extinguished  by  the  influence  of  Christianity,  the 
progress  of  civilisation,  the  rise  of  the  Hanseatic 
League  and  of  its  establishments,  which  in  Norway 
itself  both  repressed  piracy  and  gave  beneficial  occu- 
pation in  the  fisheries  to  the  surplus  population  for- 
merly occupied  in  piracy  and  warfare,  that  class  of 
people  fell  back  upon  husbandry  and  ordinary  occu- 
pations which  had  formerly  been  engaged  all  summer 
and  autumn  in  marauding  expeditions ;  and  the  class 
of  slaves,  the  thralls,  was  necessarily  superseded  in 
their  utility  by  people  living  at  home  all  the  year. 
The  last  piratical  expeditions  were  about  the  end  of 
the  12th  century,  and  in  the  following  century 
thraldom,  or  slavery,  was,  it  is  understood,  abolished 
by  law  by  Magnus  the  Law  Improver.  The  labour 
of  the  slave  was  no  longer  needed  at  home,  and  would 
not  pay  the  cost  of  his  subsistence. 

Physical  circumstances  also,  and  not  conventional 
or  accidental  circumstances,  evidently  moulded  the 
other  social  arrangements  of  the  Northmen  into  a 
shape  different  from  the  feudal.  The  Things  or  as- 
semblies of  the  people,  which  kings  had  to  respect 
and  refer  to,  may  be  deduced  much  more  reasonably 
from  natural  causes  similar  to  those  which  prevented 
the  rise  of  a  feudal  class  of  nobles  in  Norway,  than 
from  political  institutions  or  principles  of  social  ar- 
rangement carried  down  from  the  ancient  Germans  in 
a  natural  state  of  liberty  in  remote  ages.  The  same 
causes  will  produce  the  same  effects  in  all  ages.  It  is 
refining  too  much  in  political  antiquarianism  to  refer 
all  liberal  social  arrangements  —  our  Enghsh  parlia- 
ments, our  constitutional  checks  upon  the  executive 


Chap.  III. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  113 

power  in  the  state,  our  popular  representation,  and  preum. 
the  spirit  of  our  laws  —  to  the  Wittenagemoths  of 
the  Saxons,  and  to  trace  these  again  up  to  princi- 
ples of  freedom  in  social  arrangement  derived  from 
the  Germanic  tribes  in  the  days  of  Tacitus.  But  it  is 
not  refining  too  much  to  conclude  that,  in  every  age 
and  country,  there  are  but  two  ways  in  which  the 
governing  class  of  a  community  can  issue  their  laws, 
commands,  or  will,  to  the  governed.  One  is  through 
writing,  and  by  the  arts  of  writing  and  reading  being 
so  generally  dilFused  that  in  every  locality  one  indi- 
vidual at  least,  the  civil  functionary  or  the  parish 
priest,  is  able  to  communicate  the  law,  command,  or 
will  of  the  governing,  to  that  small  group  of  the  go- 
verned over  which  he  is  placed.  The  other  way,  and 
the  only  way  where,  from  the  nature  of  the  soil  and 
climate,  the  governed  are  widely  scattered,  and  writ- 
ing and  reading  are  rarely  attained,  and  such  civil  or 
clerical  arrangement  not  efficient,  was  to  convene 
Things  or  general  assemblies  of  the  people,  at  which 
the  law,  command,  or  will  of  the  governing  could  be 
made  kno\vn  to  the  governed.  There  could  be  no 
other  way,  in  poor  thinly-inhabited  countries  espe- 
cially, by  which  the  governing,  however  despotic, 
could  get  their  law,  command,  or  will  done ;  for  these 
must  be  made  knoAvn  to  be  executed  or  obeyed,  whe- 
ther they  were  for  a  levy  of  men  or  of  money,  for  war 
or  for  peace,  for  rewarding  and  honouring,  or  for  pu- 
nishing and  disgracing  —  the  law,  command,  or  will 
must  be  promulgated.  Nor  is  it  refining  too  much 
to  conclude,  that  wheresoever  men  are  assembled  to- 
gether in  numbers  for  public  business,  be  it  merely 
to  hear  the  law,  command,  or  will  of  a  despotic  ruler, 
the  spirit  of  deliberating  upon,  considering,  and  judg- 
ing of  the  decree  given  out,  and  of  the  public  interests 
involved  in  it,  is  there  in  the  midst  of  them.  The 
democratic  element  of  society  is  there, — the  spirit 

VOL.  I.  I 


114  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  Ill 


disIert    ^^  j^^gi^g  i^  tlieir  own  affairs  is  there,  and  is  let 
loose  ;  for  such  an  assembly  is  in  effect  a  parliament, 
in  which  public  opinion  will  make  itself  heard ;  and 
coming  from  the  only  mihtary  force  of  those  ages, 
the  mass  of  the  people,  and,  in  the  North,  of  a  people 
without  military  subordination  to  a  feudal  aristocracy 
in  civil  affairs,  must  predominate  over  the  will  of  the 
king  supported  only  by  his  court  retinue.    The  concur- 
rence of  a  few  great  nobles  could  not  here  give  effect 
to  the  royal  command,  law,  or  will ;  because  the  few, 
the  intermediate  link  of  a  powerful  aristocracy,  which 
to  this  day  chains  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  on  the  Con- 
tinent, was  from  physical  causes  —  the  poverty  of  the 
soil  —  totally  wanting  among  the  Northmen,  and  the 
kings  had  to  deal  direct  with  the  people  in  great  ge- 
neral assemblies  or  Things.     The  necessity  of  holding 
such  general  meetings  or  Things  for  announcing  to 
the  people  the  levies  of  men,  ships,  and  provisions  re- 
quired of  them,  and  for  all  public  business,  and  the 
check  given  by  the  Things  to  all  measures  not  ap- 
proved of  by  the  public  judgment,  appear  in  every 
page  of  the  Heimskringla,  and  constitute  its  great 
value,  in  fact,  to  us,  as  a  record  of  the  state  of  social 
arrangement  among  our  ancestors.     The  necessity  of 
assembling  the  people  was  so  well  established,  that  we 
find  no  public  act  whatsoever  undertaken  without  the 
deliberation  of  a  Thing ;  and  the  principle  was  so  en- 
grafted in  the  spirit  of  the  people,  that  even  the  attack 
of  an  enemy,  the  course  to  be  taken  in  dangerous  cir- 
cumstances, to  retreat  or  advance,  were  laid  before  a 
Thing  of  all  the  people  in  the  fleet  or  army ;  and  they 
often  referred  it  to  the  king's  own  judgment,  that  is, 
the  king  took  authority  from  the  Thing  to  act  in  the 
emergency  on  his  own  plan  and  judgment.      A  re- 
ference to  the  people  in  all  that  concerned  them  was 
interwoven  with  the  daily  life  of  the  Northmen,  in 
peace   and  in  war.     We   read  of  House   Things,  of 


Chap.  III. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  115 

Court  Thinf^^s,  of  District  Thinecs  for   administerino:    preltm. 

.   O    7  t)  C)       DISSERT. 

law,  of  Things  for  consultation  of  all  engaged  in  an 
expedition ;  and  in  all  matters,  and  on  all  occasions,  in 
which  men  were  embarked  with  common  interests,  a 
reference  to  themselves,  a  universal  spirit  of  self-go- 
vernment in  society,  was  established.  King  Swerrer, 
who  reigned  from  1177  to  1208,  after  the  period  when 
Snorro  Sturleson's  work  ends,  although  taking  his 
own  way  in  his  military  enterprises,  appears  in  a  saga 
of  his  reign  never  to  have  omitted  calling  a  Thing, 
and  bringing  it  round  by  his  speeches,  which  are  often 
very  characteristic,  to  his  own  opinion  and  plans. 

So  essential  were  Things  considered  wheresoever 
men  were  acting  with  a  common  stake  and  interest, 
that  in  war  expeditions  the  call  to  a  Thing  on  the 
Avar-horn  or  trumpet  appears  to  have  been  a  settled 
signal-call   known   to    all    men,  —  like   the    call    to 
arms,  or  the  call  to  attack ;  and  each  kind  of  Thing, 
whether   it   was    a   general    Thing    that   was    sum- 
moned, or  a  House  Thing  of  the  king's  counsellors, 
or  a  Herd  Thing  of  the  court,  or  of  the  leaders  of  the 
troops,  appears  to  have  had  its  distinct  peculiar  call 
on  the  war-horn  known  to  all  men.    In  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  the  country,  the  Things  were  assembled  in 
a  simple  and  effective  way.     A  hod.,  called  a  bud- 
stikke  in  Norway,  where  it  is  still  used,  was  a  stick 
of  wood  like  a  constable's  baton,  with  a  spike  at  the 
end  of  it,  which  was  passed  from  house  to  house,  as  a 
signal  for  the  people  to  assemble.     In  each  house  it 
was  well  known  to  which  neighbouring  house  it  had 
to  be  passed,  and  the  penalties  for  detaining  the  bod 
were  very  heavy.    In  modern  times,  the  place,  house, 
and  occasion  of  meeting,  are  stated  on  a  slip  of  paper 
inclosed  in  the  bottom  of  the  budstick ;  but  in  former 
times  the  Thing-place,  and  the  time  allowed  for  re- 
pairing there,  were  knoAvn,  and  whether  to  go  armed 
or  unarmed  was  the  only  matter  requiring  to  be  indi- 

I  2 


Chap.  III. 


116  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

ms^ERT  c^^^^-  ^^  arrow  split  into  four  parts  was  the  known 
token  for  appearing  in  arms.  If  the  people  of  a 
house  to  which  the  token  was  carried  were  from  home, 
and  the  door  locked,  the  bearer  had  to  stick  it  on  the 
door  by  the  spike  inserted  in  one  end  for  this  pur- 
pose ;  if  the  door  was  open,  but  the  people  not  at 
home,  the  bearer  had  "  to  stick  it  in  the  house-father's 
great  chair  at  the  fireside ; "  and  this  was  to  be  held 
a  legal  delivery  of  the  token,  exonerating  the  last 
bearer  from  the  penalties  for  detaining  it.  The  peace 
token,  a  simple  stick  with  a  spike ;  the  war  token,  an 
arrow  split  into  quarters,  and  sent  out  in  different 
directions ;  a  token  in  shape  of  an  axe,  to  denote  the 
presence  of  the  king  at  the  Thing ;  and  one  in  shape 
of  the  cross,  to  denote  that  church  matters  were  to  be 
considered,  —  are  understood  to  have  been  used  before 
writing  and  reading  were  diffused.  On  one  occasion, 
we  read  of  Earl  Hakon  issuing  the  usual  token  for 
the  bonders  to  meet  him  at  a  Thing;  and  it  was  ex- 
changed, in  its  course,  for  the  war  token,  and  the 
bonders  appeared  in  arms,  and  overpowered  the  Earl 
and  his  attendants. 

The  Things  appear  not  to  have  been  representative, 
but  primary  assemblies,  of  all  the  bonders  of  the  dis- 
trict udal-born  to  land.  In  Sweden  there  appears  to 
have  been  one  general  Thing  held  at  Upsal,  at  the  time 
when  the  festivals  or  sacrifices  to  Thor,  Odin,  and 
Friggia  were  celebrated.  From  the  proceedings  of 
one  of  the  Things  held  at  Upsal  in  February  or  March, 
1018,  related  in  the  Saga  of  Saint  Olaf,  we  may  have 
some  idea  of  the  power  of  those  assemblies.  King 
Olaf  of  Sweden,  who  had  a  great  dislike  to  Olaf  King 
of  Norway,  was  forced  by  this  Thing  to  conclude  a 
peace  with,  and  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to.  King 
Olaf  of  Norway,  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  hostilities 
between  the  two  countries ;  and  they  threatened,  by 
their  lagman,  to  depose  him  for  misgovernment,  if 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  117 

he  refused  the  treaty  and  alliance  which  King  Olaf   Jfg^^^^- 

of  Norway  proposed  by  his  ambassador  Hialte  the      

Scald.  The  lagman  appears  to  have  been  the  deposi- 
tary and  expounder  of  the  laws  passed  by  the  Things, 
and  to  have  been  either  appointed  by  the  people  as 
their  president  at  the  Things,  or  to  have  held  his 
office  by  hereditary  succession  from  the  godar,  and 
to  have  been  priest  and  judge,  exercising  both  the 
religious  and  judicial  function.  At  this  general 
Thing  at  Upsal  the  lagman  of  the  district  of  Upland 
was  entitled  to  preside ;  and  his  influence  and  power 
in  this  national  assembly  appear  to  have  been  much 
greater  than  the  king's.  It  is  a  picturesque  circum- 
stance, mentioned  in  the  Saga  of  Saint  Olaf  about  this 
Thing  at  Upsal  in  1018,  that  when  Thrognyr  the 
lagman  rose  after  the  ambassador  from  Norway  had 
delivered  his  errand,  and  the  Swedish  king  had  replied 
to  it,  all  the  bonders,  who  had  been  sitting  on  the 
grass  before,  rose  up,  and  crowded  together  to  hear 
what  their  lagman  Thrognyr  was  going  to  say ;  and 
the  old  lagman,  whose  white  and  silky  beard  is  stated 
to  have  been  so  long  that  it  reached  his  knees  when 
he  was  seated,  allowed  the  clanking  of  their  arms  and 
the  din  of  their  feet  to  subside  before  he  began  his 
speech.  The  Things  appear  to  have  been  always 
held  in  the  open  air,  and  the  people  were  seated ;  and 
the  speakers,  even  the  kings,  rose  up  to  address  them. 
In  the  characters  of  great  men  given  in  the  sagas  we 
always  find  eloquence,  ready  agreeable  speaking,  a 
good  voice,  a  quick  apprehension,  a  ready  delivery,  and 
winning  manners,  reckoned  the  highest  qualities  of  a 
popular  king  or  eminent  chief.  His  talent  as  a  public 
speaker  is  never  omitted.  In  Sweden  this  one  general 
Thing  appears  to  have  been  for  the  whole  country ; 
and  besides  the  religious  or  civil  business,  a  kind  of 
fair  for  exchanging  commodities  arose  from  the  con- 
course of  people  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

I  3 


118  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM.    In  Norway,  —  owing  no  doubt  to  the  much  greater 

difference  in  the  means  of  subsistence  in  the  different 

quarters  of  the  country,  in  some  of  which  fishing- 
grounds  out  at  sea,  and  even  rocks  abounding  in  sea- 
fowl  eggs  at  the  season,  were  subjects  of  property;  in 
others  pasturages  in  distant  mountain  glens,  and  in 
others  arable  lands  only,  are  of  importance, — four  dis- 
tinct Things  appear  in  the  oldest  times  to  have  been 
necessary  for  framing  laws  suitable  to  the  different 
circumstances  of  their  respective  jurisdictions  ;  and, 
within  their  jurisdictions,  the  smaller  district  Things 
appear  to  have  determined  law  cases  between  parties 
according  to  the  laws  settled  at  the  great  Things ; 
and  as  the  mulcts  or  money  penalties  paid  for  all 
crimes  went  partly  to  the  king,  and  were  an  important 
branch  of  the  royal  revenue,  the  kings,  on  their  pro- 
gresses through  the  land,  Avith  the  lagman  of  each 
district,  appear  to  have  held  these  Things  for  adminis- 
tering justice  and  collecting  their  revenue.  The  king's 
bailiff,  or  the  tacksman  or  donatory  of  the  revenue  of 
the  district,  appears  to  have  held  these  Law  Things  in 
the  king's  absence.  The  great  Things  appear  to  have 
been  legislative,  and  the  small  district  Things  within 
their  circle  of  jurisdiction  administrative.  Of  the 
great  Things  there  were  in  old  times  four  in  different 
quarters  of  Norway.  The  Froste  Thing  was  held  in 
the  Drontheim  country,  at  a  farm  called  Lagten,  in 
the  present  bailiwick  of  Frosten ;  Gule  Thing,  at 
Evindwick,  in  the  shiprath  of  Gule,  on  the  west  coast 
of  Norway ;  Eidsivia  Thing,  at  Eidsvold,  in  Upper 
Kaumerige,  for  the  inland  or  upland  districts  of  Nor- 
way ;  and  Borgar  Thing,  at  the  old  burgh  called 
Sarpsborg,  on  the  river  Glommen,  near  the  great 
waterfall  called  Sarpsfors.  One  or  two  other  Law 
Things  appear  to  have  been  added  in  later  times :  one 
in  Halogaland  for  the  people  living  far  north,  and  one 
on  the  coast  between  the  jurisdiction  or  circle  of  the 


Chap.  III. 


Kl^GS    OF   NOEWAY.  119 

Sarpsborg  Thing  and  that  of  the  Gule  Thing.  A  ^^^g^jj^ 
special  Thing,  called  the  Ore  Thing,  from  being  held 
on  the  Ore,  Aar,  or  isthmus*  of  the  river  Nid,  on 
which  the  city  of  Drontheim  stands,  was  considered 
the  only  Thing  which  could  confer  the  sovereignty  of 
the  whole  of  Norway,  the  other  Things  having  no 
right  to  powers  beyond  their  own  circles.  It  was 
only  convened  for  this  special  purpose  of  examining 
and  proclaiming  the  right  to  the  whole  kingdom ; 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  only  the  kingship  de  jure 
that  the  Ore  Thing  considered  and  confirmed:  the 
king  had  still  to  repair  to  each  Law  Thing  and  small 
Thing,  to  obtain  their  acknowledgment  of  his  right, 
and  the  power  of  a  sovereign  within  their  jurisdictions. 
The  scatt  or  land-tax, — the  right  of  guest-quarters  or 
subsistence  on  royal  progresses,  —  the  levy  of  men, 
ships,  provisions,  arms,  for  defence  at  home,  or  war  ex- 
peditions abroad,  had  to  be  adjudged  to  the  kings  by 
the  Things ;  and  amidst  the  perpetual  contests  between 
udal-born  claimants,  the  principle  of  referring  to  the 
Things  for  the  right  and  power  of  a  sovereign,  and 
for  the  title  of  king,  was  never  set  aside.  No  class 
but  the  bonders  appeared  at  Things  Avith  any  power. 
The  kings  themselves  appear  to  have  been  but  Thing- 
men  at  a  Thing. 

Two  circumstances,  which  may  be  called  accidental, 
concurred  with  the  physical  circumstances  of  the 
country,  soil,  and  clime,  to  prevent  the  rise  of  a  feudal 
nobility  in  Norway  at  the  period,  the  9th  century, 
when  feudality  was  establishing  itself  over  the  rest 
of  Europe.  One  was  the  colonisation  of  Iceland  by 
that  class  which  in  other  countries  became  feudal 
lords  ;  the  other  was  the  conquests  in  England  and 
in  France,  by  leaders  who  drew  off  all  of  the  same 

*  The  narrow  slip  of  land  between  two  waters,  as  at  a  river  mouth 
or  outlet  of  a  lake,  between  it  and  the  sea,  is  still  called  an  Are  or  Ayre 
in  the  north  of  Scotland,  and  is  the  same  as  the  Icelandic  Ore. 

I  4 


CUAF.   III. 


120  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    class  of  more  warlike  habits  than  the  settlers  in  Ice- 

DISSERT. 

land,  and  opened  a  more  promising  field  for  their 
ambition  abroad  in  those  expeditions,  than  in  strug- 
gling at  home  against  the  supremacy  of  Harald 
Haarfager.  In  his  successful  attempt  to  reduce  all 
the  small  kings,  or  district  kings,  under  his  authority, 
he  was  necessarily  thrown  upon  the  people  for  sup- 
port, and  their  influence  would  be  naturally  increased 
by  the  suppression  through  their  aid  of  the  small  in- 
dependent kings.  This  struggle  was  renewed  at  inter- 
vals until  the  introduction  of  Christianity  by  King 
Olaf  the  Saint ;  and  the  two  parties  appear  to  have 
supported  the  two  different  religions :  the  small  kings 
and  their  party  adhering  to  the  old  religion  of  Odin, 
under  which  the  small  kings,  as  godars,  united  the 
offices  of  judge  and  priest,  and  levied  certain  dues, 
and  presided  at  the  sacrificial  meetings  as  judges  as 
well  as  priests ;  and  the  other  party,  which  included 
the  mass  of  the  people,  supported  Christianity,  and 
the  supremacy  of  King  Olaf,  because  it  relieved  them 
from  the  exactions  of  the  local  kings,  and  from  inter- 
nal war  and  pillage.  The  influence  of  the  people,  and 
of  their  Things,  gained  by  the  removal  to  other  coun- 
tries of  that  class  which  at  home  would  have  grown 
probably  into  a  feudal  aristocracy.  In  Iceland  an 
aristocratic  republic  was  at  first  established,  and  in 
Normandy  and  Northumberland  all  that  was  aristo- 
cratic in  Norway  found  an  outlet  for  its  activity. 

A  physical  circumstance  also  almost  peculiar  to 
Norway,  and  apparently  very  little  connected  with 
the  social  state  of  a  people,  was  of  great  influence,  in 
concurrence  with  those  two  accidental  circumstances, 
in  preventing  the  rise  of  an  aristocracy.  The  stone 
of  the  Peninsula  in  general,  and  of  Norway  in  par- 
ticular, is  gneiss,  or  other  hard  primary  rock,  which  is 
worked  with  difficulty,  and  breaks  up  in  rough  shape- 
less  lumps,  or  in   thin   schistose  plates ;    and  walls 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  121 

cannot   be   constructed   of   such   buildino;   materials    prelim. 

*--'  DISSERT. 

without  great  labour,  time,  and  command  of  cement.       

Limestone  is  not  found  in  abundance  in  Norway,  and 
is  rare  in  situations  in  which  it  can  be  made  and 
easily  transported ;  and  even  clay,  which  is  used  as  a 
bedding  or  cement  in  some  countries  for  rough  lumps 
of  stone  in  thick  walls,  is  scarce  in  Norway.     Wood 
has  of  necessity,  in  all  times  and  with  all  classes,  been 
the  only  building  material.     This   circumstance  has 
been  of  great  influence  in  the  middle  ages  on  the 
social  condition  of  the  Northmen.    Castles  of  nobles  or 
kings,  commanding  the  country  round,  and  secure 
from  sudden  assault  by  the  strength  of  the  building, 
could  not  be  constructed,  and  never  existed  in  Norway. 
The  huge  fragments  and  ruins  of  baronial  castles  and 
strongholds,  so  characteristic  of  the  state  of  society  in 
the  middle  ages  in  the  feudal  countries  of  Europe,  and 
so  ornamental  in  the  landscape  now,  are  wanting  in 
Norway.     The  noble  had  nothing  to  fall  back  upon 
but  his  war- ship,  the  king  nothing  but  the  support  of 
the  people.     In  the  reign  of  our  King  Stephen,  when 
England  Avas  covered  with  the  fortified  castles  of  the 
nobility,  to  the  number,  it  is   somewhere  stated,  of 
1500,  and  was  laid  waste  by  their  exactions  and  pri- 
vate wars,  the  sons  of  Harald  Gille — the  kings  Sigurd, 
Inge,  and  Eystein  —  were  referring  their  claims  and 
disputes  to  the  decision  of  Things  of  the  people.     In 
Normandy  and  England  the  Northmen  and  their  de- 
scendants felt  the  want  in  their  mother- country  of 
secure  fortresses  for  their  power ;  and  the  first  and 
natural  object  of  the  alien  landholders  was  to  build 
castles,  and  lodge  themselves  in  safety  by  stone  walls 
against   sudden  assaults,  and  above  all  against  the 
firebrand  of  the  midnight  assailant.     In  the  mother- 
country,  to  be  surprised  and  burned  by  night  within 
the  wooden  structures  in  which  even  kings  had  to 
reside,  was  a  fate  so  common,  that  some  of  the  kings 


122  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

mslERT    ^PP^a^^d  to  have  lived  on  board  ships  principally,  or 

on  islands  on  the  coast. 

This  physical  circumstance  of  wanting  the  building 
material  of  which  the  feudal  castles  of  other  countries 
were  constructed,  and  by  which  structures  the  feudal 
system  itself  was  mainly  supported,  had  its  social  as 
well  as  political  influences  on  the  people.  The  different 
classes  were  not  separated  from  each  other,  in  society, 
by  the  important  distinction  of  a  difference  in  the 
magnitude  or  splendour  of  their  dwellings.  The  pea- 
sant at  the  corner  of  the  forest  could,  mth  his  time, 
material,  and  labour  of  his  family  at  command,  lodge 
himself  as  magnificently  as  the  king,  —  and  did  so. 
The  mansions  of  kings  and  great  chiefs  were  no  better 
than  the  ordinary  dwellings  of  the  bonders.  Lade, 
near  Drontheim, — the  seat  of  kings  before  the  city 
of  Drontheim,  or  Nidaros,  was  founded  by  King  Olaf 
Tryggvesson,  and  which  was  the  mansion  of  Earl 
Hakon  the  Great,  and  of  many  distinguished  men  who 
were  earls  of  Lade, — was,  and  is,  a  wooden  structure 
of  the  ordinary  dimensions  of  the  houses  of  the  opulent 
bonders  in  the  district.  Egge — the  seat  of  Kalf  Arne- 
son,  who  led  the  bonder  army  against  King  Olaf  which 
defeated  and  slew  him  at  the  battle  of  Stikkleslad, 
and  who  was  a  man  of  great  note  and  social  impor- 
tance in  his  day  —  is,  and  always  has  been,  such  a 
farm-house  of  logs  as  may  be  seen  on  every  ordinary 
farm  estate  of  the  same  size.  The  foundation  of  a 
few  loose  stones,  on  which  the  lower  tier  of  logs 
is  laid  to  raise  it  from  the  earth,  remains  always 
the  same,  although  all  the  superstructure  of  wood 
may  have  been  often  renewed;  but  these  show  the 
extent  on  the  ground  of  the  old  houses.  The  equality 
of  all  ranks  in  those  circumstances  of  lodging,  food, 
clothing,  fuel,  furniture,  which  form  great  social  dis- 
tinctions among  people  of  other  countries,  must  have 
nourished  a  feeling  of  independence  of  external  cir- 


Chap.  III. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  123 

cumstancGS, — a  feeling,  also,  of  their  own  worth,  rights,  prelim. 
and  importance,  among  the  bonders, — and  must  have 
raised  their  habits,  character,  and  ideas  to  a  nearer 
level  to  those  of  the  highest.  The  kings,  having  no 
royal  residences,  were  lodged,  with  their  court  attend- 
ants on  the  royal  progresses,  habitually  by  the  bonders, 
and  entertained  by  them.  At  the  present  day  there 
are  no  royal  mansions,  or  residences  of  the  great,  in 
Norway,  different  from  the  ordinary  houses  of  the 
bonders  or  peasant-proprietors.  His  Majesty  Carl 
Johan  has  to  lodge  in  their  houses  in  travelling 
through  his  Norwegian  dominions ;  and  no  king  in 
Europe  could  travel  through  his  kingdom,  and  be 
lodged  so  well  every  night  by  the  same  class.  In 
ancient  times  the  kings  lived  in  guest-quarters, — that 
is,  by  billet  upon  the  peasant-proprietors  in  different 
districts  in  regular  turn ;  and  even  this  kind  of  inter- 
course must  have  kept  alive  a  high  feeling  of  their 
own  importance  in  the  bonder  class,  in  the  times  when, 
from  the  want  of  the  machinery  of  a  lettered  func- 
tionary class,  civil  or  clerical,  all  public  business  had 
to  be  transacted  directly  with  them  in  their  Things. 
The  rise  and  diffusion  of  letters,  learning,  and  a 
learned  class,  in  the  middle  ages,  retarded  perhaps 
rather  than  advanced  just  principles  of  government 
and  legislation.  The  people  were  more  enslaved  by 
the  power  which  the  learning  of  the  middle  ages  threw 
into  the  hands  of  their  rulers,  than  they  were  before 
in  the  ages  of  ignorance  of  letters,  when  their  rude 
force  was  in  direct  contact,  face  to  face,  with  the  rude 
power  of  their  rulers.  This  prejudicial  effect  of  the 
revival  of  letters  on  civil,  political,  and  religious 
liberty,  by  doing  away  with  all  direct  viva  voce  com- 
munication in  assemblies  of  the  people  between  the 
rulers  and  the  ruled,  may  be  traced  even  to  the  pre- 
sent day  in  Germany  and  other  countries.  The  people 
have  no  influence  in  their  own  concerns,  because  a 


124  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

Sfs^ERT  lettered  body  of  functionaries,  spread  over  the  whole 
— Ill  ^^^^^1  hody,  and  fixed  in  every  locality,  receives,  and 
disseminates  to  the  small  groups  of  the  population 
under  their  jurisdiction,  the  law,  command,  or  will  of 
the  autocratic  government,  without  that  reference  to 
the  people  which  could  not  be  avoided  when  all  had 
to  be  convened  in  a  Thing  or  assembly  to  hear  the 
promulgation.  The  period  in  which  the  influence  of 
the  governed  should  have  been  made  eifective  slipped 
by  on  the  Continent,  among  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
without  being  used ;  and  probably  would  have  slipped 
by  in  England  also,  but  for  the  recent  admixture  of 
a  wilder,  more  ignorant,  and  more  free  people,  in  a 
great  proportion  of  the  island,  who  could  not  even  be 
oppressed  without  collecting  them  into  Things,  or 
Folkmoths,  to  make  known  to  them  what  they  had  to 
submit  to.  The  very  ignorance  of  the  half  pagan 
people  of  mixed  or  pure  Danish  descent  who  occupied 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  island  at  the  Norman  conquest, 
was  the  providential  means  of  keeping  alive  that  spirit 
of  self-government  in  public  affairs  among  the  people, 
on  which,  and  not  on  the  mere  forms  of  representative 
government,  our  social  economy  rests.  The  forms 
are  useless  without  the  life  in  the  spirit  of  the  people 
to  animate  them.  France,  and  some  countries  of 
Germany,  have  got  the  moulds ;  but  the  stuff  to  fill 
them  with  is  wanting  in  the  people.  We  inherit  this 
stuff  in  the  national  character  from  the  great  inter- 
mixture of  the  rude  energetic  Northmen,  bred  up  in 
Things  and  consultations  with  their  leaders,  which 
took  place  during  the  Danish  conquest  immediately 
previous  to  the  invasion  of  William  the  Conqueror ; 
and  in  the  generation  immediately  after  his  conquest 
this  stuff  began  to  show  itself  in  fermentation,  and 
worked  out  our  present  social  institutions,  and  the 
spirit  of  our  national  character. 

The  lendermen,  or  tacksmen  of  the  king's  farms 


Chap.  III. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  125 

and  revenues,  could  scarcely  be  called  a  class.  They  pi^klim 
were  temporary  functionaries,  not  hereditary  nobles  ; 
and  had  no  feudal  rights  or  jurisdiction,  but  had  to 
plead  in  the  Things  like  other  bonders.  As  indivi- 
duals they  appear  to  have  obtained  power  and  influ- 
ence, but  not  as  a  class ;  and  they  never  transmitted 
it  to  their  posterity. 

The  earls,  or  jarls,  were  still  less  than  the  lender- 
men  a  body  of  nobility  approaching  to  the  feudal 
barons  of  other  lands.  The  title  appears  to  have 
been  altogether  personal ;  not  connected  with  property 
in  land,  or  any  feudal  rights  or  jurisdiction.  The 
Earls  of  Orkney — of  the  family  of  Rognvald  Earl  of 
More,  the  friend  of  Harald  Haarfager,  and  father  of 
Rolf  Ganger — appear  to  have  been  the  only  family  of 
hereditary  nobles  under  the  Norwegian  cro^vn  exer- 
cising a  kind  of  feudal  power.  The  Earls  of  More 
appear  to  have  been  only  functionaries  or  lendermen 
collecting  the  king's  taxes,  and  managing  the  royal 
lands  in  the  district,  and  retaining  a  part  for  their 
remuneration.  The  Earls  of  Orkney,  however,  of  the 
first  line,  appear  to  have  grown  independent,  and  to 
have  paid  only  military  service,  and  a  nominal  quit- 
rent,  and  only  when  forced  to  do  so.  This  line  ap- 
pears to  have  been  broken  in  upon  in  1129,  when 
Kala,  the  son  of  Koll,  was  made  earl,  under  the  name 
of  Earl  Rognvald.  His  father  Koll  was  married  to 
the  sister  of  Earl  Magnus  the  Saint ;  but  the  direct 
male  descendants  of  the  old  line,  the  sons  of  Earl 
Magnus's  brothers,  appear  not  to  have  been  extinct. 
In  Norway,  from  the  time  of  Earl  Hakon  of  Lade, 
who  was  regent  or  viceroy  for  the  Danish  kings  when 
they  expelled  the  Norwegian  descendants  of  Haar- 
fager, there  appears  to  have  been  a  jealousy  of  con- 
ferring the  title  of  earl,  as  it  probably  implied  some 
of  Earl  Hakon's  power  in  the  opinion  of  the  people. 
Harald  Haarfager  had   appointed  sixteen  earls,  one 


126  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

misERT    ^^^  Qiich  district,  when  he  suppressed  the  small  kings; 
— -      but  they  appear  to  have  been  merely  collectors  of 
his  rents. 

The  churchmen  were  not  a  numerous  or  powerful 
class  until  after  the  first  half  of  the  1 2th  century.  They 
were  at  first  strangers,  and  many  of  them  English. 
Nicolas  Breakspear,  the  son,  Matthew  Paris  tell  us,  of 
a  peasant  employed  about  the  Benedictine  monastery 
of  Saint  Albans  in  Hertfordshire,  and  educated  by  the 
monks  there,  was  the  first  priest  who  obtained  any 
political  or  social  influence  in  Norway.  He  was  sent 
there,  when  cardinal,  on  a  mission  to  settle  the  church ; 
and  afterwards,  when  elected  pope,  1154,  under  the 
title  of  Hadrian  lY.,  he  was  friendly  to  the  Norwegian 
people.  His  influence  when  in  Norway  was  benefi- 
cially exerted  in  preventing  the  carrying  of  arms,  or 
engaging  in  private  feuds,  during  certain  periods  of 
truce  proclaimed  by  the  church.  The  body  of  priests 
in  the  peninsula  until  the  end  of  the  12th  century 
being  small,  and  mostly  foreigners  from  England, 
both  in  Sweden  and  in  Norway,  shows  the  want  of 
education  in  Latin  and  in  the  use  of  letters  among 
the  pagan  Northmen  ;  and  shows  also  the  identity 
or  similarity  of  the  language  of  a  great  portion  at 
least  of  England  with  that  of  the  Scandinavian  penin- 
sula. 

Several  of  the  smaller  institutions  in  society,  which 
were  transplanted  into  England  by  the  Northmen  or 
their  successors,  may  perhaps  be  traced  to  the  mode  of 
living  which  the  physical  circumstances  of  the  mother- 
country  had  produced.  The  kings  having,  in  fact,  no 
safe  resting  place  but  on  board  of  ship,  being  in  per- 
petual danger,  during  their  progresses  for  subsistence 
on  shore,  to  be  surprised  and  burnt  in  their  quarters 
by  any  trifling  force,  had  no  reluctance  at  all  to  such 
expeditions  against  England,  the  Hebrides,  or  the 
Orkney  Islands,  as  they  frequently  undertook  ;   and 


Chap.  III. 


'kings    of    NORWAY.  127 

when  on  shore,  and  from  necessity  subsistino;  in  ffuest-  prelim. 
quarters  in  inland  districts,  we  see  the  first  rudiments 
of  the  institution  of  a  standing  army,  or  body  guard, 
or  body  of  hired  men-at-arms.  The  kings,  from  the 
earhest  times,  appear  to  have  kept  a  herd,  as  it  was 
called,  or  court.  The  herdmen  were  paid  men-at- 
arms  ;  and  it  appears  incidentally  from  several  pas- 
sages in  the  sagas  that  they  regularly  mounted  guard, 
— posted  sentries  round  the  king's  quarters,  —  and  had 
patroles  on  horseback,  night  and  day,  at  some  dis- 
tance, to  bring  notice  of  any  hostile  advance.  We 
find  that  Olaf  Kyrre,  or  the  Quiet,  kept  a  body  of 
120  herdmen,  60  giesters,  and  60  house-carls,  for  doing 
such  work  as  might  be  required.  The  standing  armed 
force,  or  body  guard,  appears  to  have  consisted  of  two 
classes  of  people.  The  herdmen  were  apparently  of 
the  class  udal-born  to  land,  and  consequently  entitled 
to  sit  in  Things  at  home  ;  for  they  are  called  Thing- 
men,  which  appears  to  have  been  a  title  of  distinction. 
The  giester  appears  to  have  been  a  soldier  of  the 
unfree  class  ;  that  is,  not  of  those  udal-born  to  land, 
and  free  of,  or  qualified  to  sit  in,  the  Things.  They 
appear  to  have  been  the  common  seamen,  soldiers,  and 
followers ;  for  we  do  not  find  any  mention  of  slaves 
ever  employed  under  arms  in  any  way,  or  in  any  war 
expeditions.  The  giesters  appear  to  have  been  inferior 
to  the  thingmen  or  herdmen,  as  we  find  them  em- 
ployed in  inferior  offices,  such  as  executing  criminals 
or  prisoners.  The  victories  of  Swein,  and  Canute  the 
Great,  are  ascribed  to  the  superiority  of  the  hired 
bands  of  thingmen  in  their  pay.  The  massacre  of 
the  Danes  in  1002,  by  Ethelred,  appears  to  have  been 
of  the  regular  bands  of  thingmen  who  were  quartered 
in  the  towns,  and  who  were  attacked  while  unarmed 
and  attending  a  church  festival.  The  herdmen  ap- 
pear not  only  to  have  been  disciplined  and  paid  troops, 
but  to  have  been  clothed  uniformly.    Eed  was  always 


Chap.  III. 


128  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

^?.^.yj^:  the  national  colour  of  the  Northmen,  and  continues 
still  in  Denmark  and  England  the  distinctive  colour 
of  their  military  dress.  It  was  so  of  the  herdmen 
and  people  of  distinction  in  Norway,  as  appears  from 
several  parts  of  the  sagas,  in  the  11th  century.  Olaf 
Kyrre,  or  the  Quiet,  appears  to  have  introduced,  in 
this  century,  some  court  ceremonies  or  observances 
not  used  before.  For  each  guest  at  the  royal  table 
he  appointed  a  torch-bearer,  to  hold  a  candle.  The 
butler  stood  in  front  of  the  king's  table  to  fill  the 
cups,  which,  we  are  told,  before  his  time  were  of  deer's 
horn.  The  court-marshal  had  a  table,  opposite  to  the 
king's,  for  entertaining  guests  of  inferior  dignity. 
The  drinking  was  either  by  measure,  or  without  mea- 
sure ;  that  is,  in  each  horn  or  cup  there  was  a  per- 
pendicular row  of  studs  at  equal  distances,  and  each 
guest  when  the  cup  or  horn  was  passed  to  him  drank 
down  to  the  stud  or  mark  beloAV.  At  night,  and  on 
particular  occasions,  the  drinking  was  without  mea^- 
sure,  each  taking  what  he  pleased ;  and  to  be  drunk 
at  night  appears  to  have  been  common  even  for  the 
kings.  Such  cups  with  studs  are  still  preserved  in 
museums,  and  in  families  of  the  bonders.  The  kings 
appear  to  have  wanted  no  external  ceremonial  belonging 
to  their  dignity.  They  were  addressed  in  forms,  still 
preserved  in  the  northern  languages,  of  peculiar  respect ; 
their  personal  attendants  were  of  the  highest  people, 
and  were  considered  as  holding  places  of  great  honour. 
Earl  Magnus  the  Saint  was,  in  his  youth,  one  of  those 
who  carried  in  the  dishes  to  the  royal  table ;  and  torch- 
bearers,  herdmen,  and  all  who  belonged  to  the  court, 
were  in  great  consideration ;  and  it  appears  to  have 
been  held  of  importance,  and  of  great  advantage,  to 
be  enrolled  among  the  king's  herdmen. 

We  may  assume  from  the  above  observations,  de- 
rived from  the  facts  and  circumstances  stated  in 
various  parts  of  the  Heimskringla,  that  the  intellectual 


Chap.  III. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  129 

and  political  condition  of  this  branch  of  the  Saxon  £fs|5^^jj[; 
^race,  while  it  was  pagan,  was  not  very  inferior  to, 
although  very  different  from,  that  of  the  Anglo- 
iSaxon  branch  which  had  been  Christianised  five 
hundred  years  before,  and  had  among  them  the  learn- 
ing and  organisation  of  the  church  of  Rome.  They 
had  a  literature  of  their  own ;  a  language  common  to 
all,  and  in  which  that  literature  was  composed;  laws, 
institutions,  political  arrangements,  in  which  public 
opinion  was  powerful;  and  had  the  elements  of  free- 
dom and  constitutional  government.  What  may  have 
been  the  comparative  diffusion  of  the  useful  arts  in 
the  two  branches  in  those  ages?  The  test  of  the 
civilisation  of  a  people,  next  to  their  intellectual  and 
civil  condition,  is  the  state  of  the  useful  arts  among 
them. 


VOL.  T.  K 


130  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


CHAP.  lY. 

STATE   OF   THE    USEFUL   ARTS   AMONG   THE   NORTHMEN. 

SfssEKT    ^^^  architectural  remains  of  public  buildings  in  a 
country — of  cliurcbes,  monasteries,  castles, — as  they 

Chap.  IV.  •^  •    m  i  i   t         •  o 

are  the  most  visible  and  lasting  monuments,  are  oiten 
taken  as  the  only  measure  of  the  useful  arts  in  former 
times.  Yet  a  class  of  builders,  or  stone-masons,  wan- 
dering from  country  to  country,  like  our  civil  en- 
gineers and  rail-road  contractors  at  the  present  day, 
may  have  constructed  these  edifices  ;  and  a  people  or 
a  nobility  sunk  in  ignorance,  superstition,  and  sloth, 
may  have  paid  for  the  construction,  without  any  dif- 
fusion of  the  useful  arts,  or  of  combined  industry,  in 
the  inert  mass  of  population  around.  Gothic  archi- 
tecture in  both  its  branches,  Saxon  and  Norman,  has 
evidently  sprung  from  a  seafaring  people.  The  nave 
of  the  Gothic  cathedral,  with  its  round  or  pointed 
arches,  is  the  inside  of  a  vessel  with  its  timbers,  and 
merely  raised  upon  posts,  and  reversed.  No  working 
model  for  a  Gothic  fabric  could  be  given  that  would 
not  be  a  ship  turned  upside  clown,  and  raised  on 
pillars.  The  name  of  the  main  body  of  the  Gothic 
church  —  the  nave,  navis,  or  sliip  of  the  building,  as 
it  is  called  in  all  the  northern  languages  of  Gothic 
root  —  shows  that  the  wooden  structure  of  the  ship- 
builder has  given  the  idea  and  principles  to  the  archi- 
tect, who  has  only  translated  the  wood  work  into 
stone,  and  reversed  it,  and  raised  it  to  be  the  roof 
instead  of  the  bottom  of  a  fabric.  The  Northmen, 
however,  can  lay  no  claim  to  any  attainment  in  archi- 
tecture.     The  material  and  skill  have  been  equally 


Chap.  IV. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  131 

wantinsf  amoTi<2:  them.    From  the  pae^an  times  nothins:    i'kelim. 

O  O  Lb  to       DISSERT. 

in  stone  and  hme  exists  of  any  importance  or  merit 
as  a  building  ;  and  the  principal  structure  of  an  early 
age    connected   with   Christianity,    the    cathedral   of 
Drontheim,  erected  in  the  last  half  of  the  12th  cen- 
tury, cannot  certainly  be  considered  equal  to  the  great 
ecclesiastical  structures  of  Durham,  York,  or   other 
English  cathedrals,  scarcely  even  to  that  of  the  same 
period   erected   in  Orkney  —  the  cathedral   of   Saint 
Magnus.     We  have,  however,  a  less  equivocal  test  of 
the  progress  and  diffusion  of  the  useful  arts  among 
the  Northmen    than    the    church-building    of   their 
Saxon    contemporaries,  for  which   they  wanted  the 
material.     When  we  read  of  bands  of  ferocious,  igno- 
rant, pagan  barbarians,  landing  on  the  coasts  of  Eng- 
land or  France,  let  us  apply  a  little  consideration  to 
the  accounts  of  them,  and  endeavour  to  recollect  how 
many  of  the  useful  arts  must  be  in  operation,  and  in 
a  very  advanced  state  too,  and  very  generally  diffused 
in  a  country,  in  order  to  fit  out  even  a  single  vessel 
to  cross  the  high  seas,  much  more  numerous  squad- 
rons filled  with  bands  of  fighting  men.     Legs,  arms, 
and  courage,  the  soldier  and  his  sword,  can  do  nothing 
here.     We   can  understand  multitudes  of  ignorant, 
ferocious  barbarians,  pressing  in  by  land  upon  the 
Roman  empire,  overwhelming  countries  like  a  cloud 
of  locusts,  subsisting,  as  they  march  along,  upon  the 
grain  and  cattle  of  the  inhabitants  they  exterminate, 
and  settling,  with  their  wives  and  children,  in  new 
homes ;  but  the  moment  we  come  to  the  sea  we  come 
to  a  check.      Ferocity,  ignorance,  and  courage,  will 
not  bring  men  across  the  ocean.     Food,  water,  fuel, 
clothes,  arms,  as  well  as  men,  have  to  be  provided, 
collected,  transported ;  and  be  the  ships  ever  so  rude, 
wood-work,  iron-work,  rope-work,  cloth-work,  cooper- 
work,  in  short  almost  all  the  useful  arts,  must  be  in 
full  operation  among  a  people,  before  even  a  hundred 

K  2 


leS2  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SfslEilr.  i^^i^  could  be  transported,  in  any  way,  from  the  shores 
— •  of  Norway  or  Denmark  to  the  coasts  of  England  or 
France.  Fixed  social  arrangements  too,  combinations 
of  industry  working  for  a  common  purpose,  laws  and 
security  of  person  and  property,  military  organisation 
and  discipline,  must  have  been  established  and  under- 
stood, in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  not  at  all  necessary 
to  be  presupposed  in  the  case  of  a  tumultuous  crowd 
migrating  by  land  to  new  settlements.  Do  the  ar- 
chitectural remains,  or  the  history  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  people,  or  of  any  other,  in  the  8th  or  9th 
century,  and  do'v^ni  to  the  13th,  give  us  any  rea- 
sonable ground  for  supposing  among  them  so  wide  a 
diffusion  of  the  arts  of  working  in  wood  and  iron,  of 
raising  or  procuring  by  commerce  flax  or  hemp,  of 
the  arts  of  making  ropes,  spinning,  and  weaving  sail- 
cloth, preserving  provisions,  coopering  water  casks, 
and  all  the  other  combinations  of  the  primary  arts  of 
civilised  life,  implied  in  the  building  and  fitting  out 
vessels  to  carry  three  or  four  hundred  men  across  the 
ocean,  and  to  be  their  resting  place,  refuge,  and  home 
for  many  weeks,  months,  and  on  some  of  their  viking 
cruises  even  for  years?  There  is  more  of  civilisation, 
and  of  a  diffusion  of  the  useful  arts  on  which  civilis- 
ation rests,  implied  in  the  social  state  of  a  people  who 
could  do  this,  than  can  be  justly  inferred  from  a 
people  quarrying  stones,  and  bringing  them  to  the 
hands  of  a  master-builder  to  be  put  together  in  the 
shape  of  a  church  or  castle.  Historians  tell  us  that 
when  Charlemagne,  in  the  9th  century,  saw  some 
piratical  vessels  of  the  Northmen  cruising  at  a  dis- 
tance in  the  Mediterranean,  to  which  they  had  for  the 
first  time  found  their  way,  that  he  turned  away  from 
the  mndow,  and  burst  into  tears.  Was  it  the  bar- 
barism of  these  pirates,  or  their  civilisation,  their 
comparative  superiority  in  the  art  of  navigation,  and 
of  all  belonging  to  it,  that  moved  him  ?    None  of  the 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


lo3 


countries  under  his  sway,  none  of  the  Christian  po- 
pulations of  Europe  in  the  7th,  8th,  or  9th  centuries, 
had  ships  and  men  capable  of  such  a  voyage.     The 
comparative    state    of  ship-building  and  navigation, 
in  two  countries  with  sea  coasts,  is  a  better  test  of 
their  comparative  civilisation  and  advance  in  all  the 
useful  arts  than  that  of  their  church-building.     Com- 
pared to  Italy,  Sicily,  or  Bavaria,  Great  Britain  or 
Scandinavia,  or  the  United  States  of  America,  would 
be  utterly  barbarous  and  uncivilised,  if  structures  of 
stone  were  a  measure  of  the  civilisation  and  general 
diffusion  of  the  useful  arts  among  a  people.     It  is  to 
be  observed,  also,  that  the  ships  of  the  Northmen  in 
those  ages  did  not  belong  to  the  king,  or  to  the  state, 
but  to  private  adventurers  and  peasants,  and  were 
fitted  out  by  them ;  and  were  gathered  by  a  levy  or 
impressment,  from  all  the  country,  when  required  for 
the   king's    service.      The    arts    connected    with   the 
building  and  fitting  out  such  ships  must  have  been 
generally  diffused.     The  fleets  were  not,  like  those  of 
King  Alfred,  created  by,  and  belonging  to,  the  king. 
We  need  not  have  any  great  notion  of  the  kind  and 
size  of  the  vessels  gathered  by  a  levy  from  the  pea- 
santry ;  but  the  worst  and  least  of  them  must  have 
been  sea-worthy,  and  of  a  size  to  navigate  along  the 
coast  from  the  most  northerly  district,  such  as  Halo- 
galand,  to  the  Baltic, — a  distance  of  twelve  degrees  of 
latitude  ;  they  must  have  been  of  a  size  to  carry  and 
shelter  men,  with  their  provisions,  clothes,  and  arms ; 
and  the  arms  of  those  days  required  great  room  for 
stowage.     Stones  were  an  ammunition  which  it  was 
necessary  to  carry  in  every  ship ;  because  on  the  rocky 
steep  coasts  of  Norway,  or  on  the  muddy  shores  of 
the  Baltic,  pebbly  beaches  at  which  this  kind  of  am- 
munition could  be  replaced  are  not  common.    Swords, 
spears,  battle-axes,  arrow-heads,  bows,  and  bow-strings 
had  all  to  be  kept  dry,  and  out  of  the  sea-spray;  for 

K  3 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  IV. 


134  CHRONICLE    OF    TPIE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  IV 


PRELIM,    rust  and  damp  would  make  them  useless  as  weapons. 
These,  consequently,  had  to  be  stowed  under  a  deck, 
or  in  chests.     The  shields  alone  could  bear  exposure 
to  wet,  and  they  appear  to  have  been  hung  outside 
from  the  rails  all  round  the  vessel ;  so  that  they  would 
occupy  the  place  of  quarter-cloths,  or  wash-boards, 
above  the  gunwale  of  our  shipping.     The  stowage  of 
their  plunder  also,  which  consisted  of  bulky  articles, 
as  malt,  meal,  grain,  cattle,  wool,  clothes,  arms  taken 
in  the  forays  on  the  coast,  (and  they  had  transport 
vessels  as  well  as  war  vessels  with  them  on  their  ma- 
rauding expeditions,)  required  vessels  of  a  consider- 
able size.     We  need  not  suppose  that,  of  the   1200 
vessels  which  King  Olaf  in  his  last  levy  to  oppose 
Canute  the  Great  had  assembled  and  brought  to  the 
Baltic,  the  greater   number  were   more  than  large 
boats,  of  perhaps  thirty  feet  of  keel,  with  a  forecastle 
deck,   a  cabin  aft,  and  the  centre  open,  and  merely 
tilted  over  at  night  to  shelter  the  crew.     Yet  to  con- 
struct many  hundreds  of  such  rude  craft  as  this,  — 
and  any  kind  of  boat  or  ship  below  this,  as  a  class  of 
vessels,   could  not  have  withstood  sea  and  weather 
along  the  coast  of  Norway,  and  across  the  Skagerack  to 
the  Sound, — implies  a  general  diffusion  of  the  art  of 
working  in  iron  ;  a  trade  in  the  arts  of  raising  and 
smelting  the  ore ;  and  a  knowledge,  in  every  district 
of  the   country,   of   the    smith-work  and    carpenter- 
work,  and  tools  and  handicrafts  necessary  for   ship- 
building and  fitting  out  ships  for  sea.     We  have  some 
data  in  the  sagas  from  which  we  can   arrive  at  the 
dimensions  and  appearance  of  the  larger  class  of  ves- 
sels used  by  the  Northmen,  allowing  that  the  ordinary 
vessels  of  the  peasants  gathered  by  a  levy  could  be 
no  larger  or  better  than  large  herring  boats.     We 
have  in  the  Saga  of  Olaf  Tryggvesson  some  details  of 
the  building  of  the  Long    Serpent  and  the  Crane, 
sometime  between  the  years  995  and  1000.    The  Long 


KINGS    OF   NORAVAY. 


135 


Serpent  is  called  the  largest  vessel  that  had  ever  been 
built  in  Norway  to  that  time.  These  were  long-ships, 
which  appear  to  have  been  a  denomination  of  ships 
of  war,  distinguishing  them  from  last-ships,  or  ships 
for  carrying  cargoes.  The  long- ship  was  of  much 
smaller  breadth  in  proportion  to  the  length.  The 
long-ships  appear  to  have  been  divided  into  two  classes: 
dragon  ships,  from  the  figure  head  probably  of  a 
dragon  being  used  on  them,  and  which  appear  to 
have  had  from  twenty  to  thirty  rowers  on  each  side ; 
and  snekiars,  or  cutters,  with  from  ten  to  twenty 
rowers  on  a  side.  The  Crane  had  thirty  banks  for 
rowers ;  and  the  forecastle  and  poop  w^ere  high,  and 
the  vessel  very  narrow  in  proportion  to  her  length. 
The  Long  Serpent  had  thirty-four  banks  for  rowers, 
and  the  saga  gives  some  interesting  details  concerning 
her.  The  length  of  her  keel,  we  are  told,  that  rested 
upon  the  grass,  was  74  ells.  This  ell  is  stated  by 
Macpherson,  in  his  "  Annals  of  Commerce,"  on  the 
authority  of  Thorkelin,  a  learned  antiquary,  who  was 
keeper  of  the  Eoyal  Library  at  Copenhagen,  to  have 
been  equal  to  a  foot  and  a  half  English  measure.  We 
have,  therefore.  111  feet  at  the  least,  as  the  length  of 
keel  of  this  vessel.  This  would  be  within  about  10 
feet  of  the  length  of  keel  of  one  of  our  frigates  of 
42  guns,  and  of  942  tons  burden,  and  of  a  breadth 
of  38  feet  and  a  depth  of  13  feet ;  or,  taking  a  steam 
vessel  of  1 1 1  feet  of  keel,  the  extreme  breadth  would 
be  22  feet,  the  depth  13^  feet,  the  tonnage  296  tons, 
and  the  horse-power  120.  These  are  dimensions  and 
proportions  given  for  111  feet  of  keel  in  the  able  arti- 
cles on  ship  building  and  on  steam  navigation  in  the 
"  Encyclopaedia  Britannica."  The  Long  Serpent,  being 
a  rowing  as  Avell  as  sailing  vessel,  would  have  as  much 
rake  of  stem  and  stern  as  a  steamer ;  and  would  be 
as  long  on  deck.  She  is  described  as  of  good  breadth, 
but  the  breadth  is  not  stated;  well  timbered,  for  which 

K   4 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  IV. 


136 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  IV. 


the  saga  refers  to  the  knees  for  supporting  the  beams, 
which  were  then  to  be  seen  ;  and  with  thirty-four 
benches  or  banks  for  rowers,  which  would  be  the 
beams  in  a  modern  vessel.  One  of  our  long  large 
steam  vessels,  with  high  poop  deck  and  forecastle 
deck,  low  waist,  and  small  breadth,  would  probably 
have  very  nearly  the  same  appearance  in  the  water 
as  such  a  vessel  as  the  Long  Serpent ;  only,  instead  of 
paddle-boxes  and  wheels  on  each  side,  there  would  be 
thirty-four  oars  out  on  each  side  between  the  fore- 
castle and  the  poop.  The  Northmen  appear  by  the 
saga  to  have  been  lavish  in  gilding  and  painting  their 
vessels.  One  of  these  long  low  war -ships  of  the 
vikings,  with  a  gilded  head  representing  a  dragon  on 
the  stem,  and  a  gilded  representation  of  its  tail  at  the 
stern  curling  over  the  head  of  the  steersman,  with  a 
row  of  shining  red  and  white  shields  hung  over  the 
rails  all  round  from  stem  to  stern,  representing  its  scaly 
sides,  and  thirty  oars  on  each  side  giving  it  motion  and 
representing  its  legs,  must  have  been  no  inapt  repre- 
sentation of  the  ideal  figure  of  a  dragon  creeping  over 
the  blue  calm  surface  of  a  narrow  gloomy  fiord,  sunk 
deep,  like  some  abode  for  unearthly  creatures,  between 
precipices  of  bare  black  rock,  which  shut  out  the  full 
light  of  day.  Dragon  was  a  name  for  a  class  or  size 
of  war-ships,  but  each  had  its  o^vn  name.  The  Crane, 
the  Little  Serpent,  the  Long  Serpent,  the  Bison,  and 
other  vessels  of  about  thirty  banks  for  rowers,  are 
mentioned  ;  and  vessels  of  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
banks  appear  to  have  been  common  among  the  con- 
siderable bonders,  and  cutters  of  ten  or  fifteen  banks 
to  have  been  the  ordinary  class  of  vessels  of  all  who 
went  on  sea.  A  vessel  of  thirty  or  thirty-four  banks 
for  rowers  would  have  that  number  of  oars  out  on 
each  side,  and  not  fifteen  or  seventeen  only  on  each 
side  ;  because  the  breadth  of  such  a  vessel  would  be 
sufiicient  to  give  two  rowers,  sitting  midships,  a  suffi- 


Chap.  IV. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  137 

cient  length  of  lever  between  their  hands  and  the  JfJ^J^^^- 
fulcrum  at  the  gunwales  on  either  side,  to  wield  and 
work  any  length  of  oar  that  could  be  advantageous : 
but  in  the  smaller  class  of  vessels  of  ten  or  fifteen 
oars  it  is  likely  that  one  oar  only  was  worked  on  each 
bank,  as  in  our  men-of-war's  boats,  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  vessel  being  required  for  the  portion  of  the 
lever  or  oar  within  the  fulcrum  or  gunwale.  Under 
the  feet  of  the  rowers,  in  the  waist  of  the  vessel,  the 
chests  of  arms,  stones  for  casting,  provisions,  clothing, 
and  goods,  have  been  stowed,  and  protected  by  a  deck  of 
moveable  hatches.  Upon  this  lower  deck  the  crew  ap- 
pear to  have  slept  at  night,  sheltered  from  the  weather 
by  a  tilt  or  awning,  when  not  landed  and  under  tents 
on  the  beach  for  the  night.  Ship-tents  are  mentioned 
in  the  outfit  of  vessels  as  being  of  prime  necessity,  as 
much  as  ship-sails.  In  the  voyages  in  the  sagas,  we 
read  of  fleets  collected  in  the  north  of  Norway,  from 
Drontheim,  and  even  from  Halogaland,  sailing  south 
along  the  coast  every  summer  as  far  as  the  Sound, 
and  thence  into  the  Baltic,  or  along  the  coast  of  Jut- 
land and  Sleswig,  and  thence  over  to  Britain,  or  to 
the  other  coasts.  The  major  part  of  the  vessels  ap- 
pear to  have  taken  a  harbour  every  night,  or  to  have 
been  laid,  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  close  to  the  rocks, 
in  some  sheltered  spot,  mth  cables  on  the  land,  or 
with  the  fore-foot  of  the  vessel  touching  the  beach ; 
and  the  people  either  landed  and  set  up  tents  on 
shore,  or  made  a  tilt  on  board  by  striking  the  mast, 
and  laying  the  tilt  cloths  or  sails  over  it.  The  large 
open  vessels  which  at  present  carry  the  dried  fish  from 
the  Lofoden  isles  to  Bergen,  although  open  for  the 
sake  of  stowage,  are  of  a  size  to  carry  masts  of  40 
feet  long  which  are  struck  by  the  crew  when  not 
under  sail,  there  being  no  standing  rigging,  and  only 
one  large  square- sail.  This  appears  to  have  been  the 
rig  and  description  of  all  the  ancient  vessels,  great 


Chap.  IV. 


138  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    or  small,  of  the  Northmen.     They  appear  to  have  had 

DISSERT.  .  '  "^     ^^, 

a  certain  show  and  luxury  about  their  sails ;  for  we 
read  of  them  having  stripes  of  white,  red,  and  blue 
cloths ;  and  we  read  of  Sigurd  the  Crusader  waiting 
for  a  fortnight  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dardanelles  with 
a  fair  wind  for  going  up  the  strait,  until  he  got  a 
wind  with  which  he  could  sail  up  with  the  sails 
trimmed  fore  and  aft  in  his  ships,  that  the  inhabitants 
on  shore  might  see  the  splendour  of  his  sails.  These 
large  rowing  vessels  had  one  advantage  belonging 
only  to  steam  vessels  in  our  times,  that  they  could 
back  out  of  seen  dangers ;  and  being  under  command 
of  oars,  and  with  small  draught  of  water,  shallows, 
rocks,  and  lee  shores  were  not  such  formidable  dan- 
gers to  them  as  to  our  sailing  vessels.  Many  im- 
portant towns  in  those  times,  as  for  instance  all  our 
Cinque  Ports,  appear  to  have  been  situated  rather 
with  a  reference  originally  to  a  good  convenience  for 
beaching  such  vessels,  than  to  good  sheltered  harbours 
for  riding  at  anchor  in.  The  whole  coast  of  the 
peninsula,  from  the  North  Cape  round  to  Tornea,  is 
protected  from  the  main  ocean  by  an  almost  continu- 
ous belt  of  islands,  islets,  rocks,  and  half-tide  reefs,  or 
skerries,  within  which  the  navigation  is  comparatively 
smooth,  although  very  intricate  for  vessels  with  sails 
only.  This  inland  passage  "within  the  skerries"  is 
used  now,  even  in  winter,  by  small  boats  going  to  the 
cod-fishing  in  the  Lofoden  isles  from  the  Bergen  dis- 
trict. It  is  only  at  particular  openings,  as  at  the 
mouths  of  the  great  fiords,  that  this  continuous  chain 
of  sheltering  isles  and  rocks  is  broken,  and  that  the 
eye  of  the  ocean,  as  the  Norwegian  fishermen  express 
it,  looks  in  upon  the  land.  By  waiting  opportunities 
to  cross  these  openings  vessels  of  a  small  class,  we 
may  suppose,  have  accompanied  King  Olaf  in  his 
foray  to  the  Danish  islands,  in  hopes  of  booty  more 
profitable  than  fish  ;    and  we  need   not   believe   his 


Chap.  IV. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  139 

fleet  of  1200  vessels  raised  by  his  levy  to  have  been     ^REipr. 

"  "  DISSERT. 

all  of  a  large  class.  When  his  son  Magnus  the  Good 
went  to  Denmark  to  claim  the  crown,  upon  the 
death  of  Hardicanute  of  England,  in  consequence  of 
an  agreement  that  the  survivor  of  the  two  should 
succeed  to  the  heritage  of  the  other,  he  is  stated  to 
have  had  seventy  large  vessels  with  him,  by  which  we 
may  suppose  vessels  of  twenty  banks  or  upwards, 
such  as  the  considerable  bonders  possessed,  to  be 
meant ;  and  this  number  probably  expresses  more  cor- 
rectly the  number  of  large  ships  then  in  the  country. 
The  size  of  the  war-vessels  appears  to  have  been 
reckoned  by  the  banks,  or  by  the  rooms  between  two 
banks  of  oars.  Each  room  or  space,  we  may  gather 
from  the  sagas,  was  the  berth  of  eight  men,  and  was 
divided  into  half-rooms,  starboard  and  larboard,  of 
four  men  for  working  the  corresponding  oars.  When 
the  ships  were  advancing  two  men  worked  the  oar, 
one  covered  them  with  his  shield  from  the  enemy's 
missiles,  and  one  shot  at  the  enemy.  When  the  ships 
got  into  line,  they  were  bound  together  by  their  stems 
and  sterns  ;  and  the  forecastles  and  poops,  which  were 
decked,  and  raised  high  in  the  construction  of  their  ves- 
sels, and  sometimes  with  temporary  stages  or  castles  on 
them,  were  the  posts  of  the  fighting  men.  The  main 
manoeuvre  seems  to  have  consisted  in  laying  the  high 
forecastles  and  poops  favourably  for  striking  down 
with  stones,  arrows,  and  casting  spears,  upon  a  lower 
vessel.  They  used  grappling  irons  for  throwing  into 
the  enemy's  ship,  and  dragging  her  towards  them. 
But  these  and  similar  observations  will  occur  to  the 
reader  of  the  many  sea-fights  recounted  in  the  Heim- 
skringla. 

One  of  the  most  indispensable  articles  for  a  large 
vessel, —  one  for  which  no  substitute  can  be  found,  and 
which  cannot  be  produced  single-handed,  but  requires 
the  co-operation  of  many  branches  of  industry, — is  the 


140  CHKONICLE    OF    THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  IV. 


PRELIM,  anchor.  Boats  may  be  anchored  by  a  stone,  or  a 
hook  of  strong  wood  sunk  by  a  heavy  stone  attached 
to  it ;  but  vessels  of  from  50  to  111  feet  of  keel,  such 
as  the  war-ships  and  last-ships  of  the  JN^orthmen, 
must  have  carried  anchors  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred weight  at  the  least,  and  we  read  of  their  riding- 
out  heavy  gales.  To  forge,  or  procure  in  any  way 
such  anchors,  betokens  a  higher  state  of  the  useful 
arts  among  these  pagan  Northmen  than  we  usually 
allow  them.*  Iron  is  the  mother  of  all  the  useful 
arts ;  and  a  people  who  could  smelt  iron  from  the  ore, 
and  work  it  into  all  that  is  required  for  ships  of  con- 
siderable size,  from  a  nail  to  an  anchor,  could  not  have 
been  in  a  state  of  such  utter  barbarism  as  they  are 
represented  to  us.  We  may  fairly  doubt  of  their 
gross  ignorance  and  want  of  civilisation  in  their  pagan 
state,  when  we  find  they  had  a  literature  of  their 
own,  and  laws,  institutions,  social  arrangements,  a 
spirit  and  character  very  analogous  to  the  English,  if 
not  the  source  from  which  the  English  flowed ;  and 
were  in  advance  of  all  the  Christian  nations  in  one 
branch  at  least  of  the  useful  arts,  in  which  great 
combinations  of  them  are  required — the  building,  fit- 
ting out,  and  navigating  large  vessels. 

*  The  Museum  of  Northern  Antiquities  at  Copenhagen  contains  many 
articles,  both  of  ornament  and  use,  which  display  great  ingenuity  and 
good  workmanship  in  metal,  and  betoken  a  considerable  division  of 
trades  and  of  labour  in  their  production,  even  in  the  earliest  times. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY. 


141 


CHAP.  V. 

OF   THE    DISCOVERY    OF    GREENLAND   AND    AMERICA   BY 

THE    NORTHMEN. 


The  jjiscovery  of  Greenland  by  the  Icelanders  about 
the  year  981,  and  the  establishment  of  considerable 
colonies  on  one  or  on  both  sides  of  that  vast  penin- 
sula which  terminates  at  Cape  Farewell, — in  which 
Christianity  and  Christian  establishments,  parishes, 
churches,  and  even  monasteries,  were  flourishing,  or 
at  least  existing  to  such  an  extent  that  from  1124  to 
1389_tliere  was  a  re^ulai*  succession  of  bishops^  of 
whom  seventeen  are  named,  for  their  superintendence, 
— are  facts  which  no  longer  admit  of  any  reasonable 
doubt.  The  documentary  evidence  of  the  saga,. — which 
gave  not  merely  vague  accounts  of  such  a  discovery 
and  settlement,  but  statistical  details,  with  the  names 
and  the  distances  from  each  other  of  farms  or  town- 
ships, of  which  there  were,  according  to  accounts  of 
the  14th  century,  ninety  in  what  was  called  Yestri- 
bygd  or  the  western  settlement,  with  four  churches, 
and  190  in  the  Eystribygd  or  eastern  settlement,  with 
one  cathedral,  eleven  other  churches,  two  towns,  and 
three  or  four  monasteries, — bears  all  the  internal  evi- 
dence of  truth,  in  the  consistency  and  simplicity  of 
the  statements.  The  saga  accounts  also  are  supported 
by  the  incidental  notice  of  Greenland  by  contemporary 
writers.  Adam  of  Bremen  mentions  that  the  people 
of  Greenland,  among  other  northern  people,  sent  to 
his  diocesan,  Adalbert  archbishop  of  Bremen,  who 
died  in  1075,  for  clergymen,  who  accordingly  were 
sent  to  them.     The  first  bishop  of  Greenland  men- 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  V. 


Chap.  V. 


142  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    tioned  in  the  Icelandic  accounts   was   Arnold,  who 

DISSERT.  •Ill  1  1   •  •  •         . 

was  ordained  by  the  archbishop  of  Lund,  in  Scania,  in 
1121.  The  bishopric  of  Greenland  was  afterwards 
under  the  archbishop  of  Drontheim ;  and  Alf,  or 
Alfus,  who  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1378  in 
Greenland,  is  the  last  who  is  known  to  have  officiated 
there.  In  1389,  Henry,  according  to  Torfaeus,  was 
appointed  bishop  ;  and  in  1406  Askil  was  appointed 
to  succeed  Henry,  in  case  he  was  dead.  But  it  does 
not  appear,  according  to  Torfaeus,  that  either  of  them 
ever  reached  Greenland ;  but,  since  TorfaBus's  time,  a 
document  is  said  to  have  been  discovered  relative  to 
a  marriage  settlement  executed  at  Garda,  the  name  of 
the  town  or  episcopal  seat  in  Greenland,  by  the  last 
bishop,  whose  name  was  Endrede  Andreasson,  not 
Askil,  three  years  later,  viz.  in  1409.  In  1261,  the 
Greenland  sett^  appear  to  have  been  regularly 

annexed  to  the  crown  of  Norway  ]yy  King  ITakon 
Hakonson,  who  sent  messengers  to  the  people  of  Green- 
land ;  and  in  the  submission  which  the  messengers 
brought  back,  it  was  agreed  "  that  all  fines  for  mur- 
ders, whether  committed  by  Norwegian  or  Greenland 
people,  on  inhabited  or  uninhabited  land,  or  even  under 
the  pole  itself,  should  be  paid  to  the  king."  The  pay- 
ments for  murders,  or  other  capital  offences  com- 
pounded for  by  mulcts  to  the  king  and  relations,  were 
then  a  considerable  branch  of  the  royal  revenues.  In 
1388-9,  Henry  the  bishop,  on  setting  out  for  Green- 
land, received  instructions  to  keep  the  king's  revenues 
safely  warehoused  in  a  certain  fixed  place,  those  years 
in  which  no  vessels  came  to  Greenland  ;  which  shows 
that  the  communications  with  Iceland  were  not  yearly 
or  regular.  A  brief  of  Vg\)q  Nicliolas  V.,  in  1448,  to 
the  bishops  of  Skalholt  and  Holiuu  in  Iceland,  states 
"  that  his  beloved  children  dwelling  in  an  island  called 
Greenland,  on  the  utmost  verge  of  the  ocean  north 
of  Norway,   and  who  are  under  the  archbishop  of 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  14 

Drontheim,  have  raised  his  compassion  by  their  com-    prelim. 

plaint  that  after  having  been  Christians  for  600  years,       

and  converted  by  the  holy  Saint  Olaf,  and  having 
erected  many  sacred  buildings  and  a  splendid  cathedral 
on  said  island,  in  which  divine  service  was  diligently 
performed,  they  had  thirty  years  ago  been  attacked 
by  the  heathens  of  the  neighbouring  coast,  who  came 
with  a  fleet  against  them,  and  killed  and  dispersed 
many,  and  made  slaves  of  those  who  were  able-bodied ; 
but  having  now  gathered  together  again,  they  crave 
the  services  of  priests  and  a  bishop."  The  pope  there- 
fore desires  those  bishops,  as  the  nearest,  to  consult 
with  their  diocesan,  if  the  distance  permit,  and  to 
send  the  Greenland  people  a  suitable  man  to  be  their 
bishop.  The  sudden  extinction  of  ?^.  colmiy^  which 
must  have  attained  considerable  importance  and  po- 
pulation to  have  had  a  regular  succession  of  bishops 
for  250  years,  is  much  more  extraordinary  than  its 
establishment.  It  vanished,  as  it  were,  from  the 
face  of  the  earth,  about  the  end  of  the  14th  or  begin- 
ning of  the  15th  century  ;  and  even  the  memory  of 
its  former  existence  passed  away.  The  Christian 
colony  established  in  the  10th  century  in  Greenland, 
with  its  churches,  monasteries,  bishops,  was  considered, 
notwithstanding  the  internal  and  the  collateral  evidence 
supporting  the  sagas,  to  be  a  pious  delusion  of  the 
middle  ages,  founded  on  a  mere  saga  fable.  The  fable 
itself  is  short,  and  appears  to  have  nothing  fabulous 
in  it.  In  the  beginning  of  th^JDlh  centmy^  an  Ice- 
lan^^.  _jor__8L  JioXffiegian^^.^^ 
Kraka^  waa  .driven..hy.^..sJtQrmJLQ Jl]^ 
and  discovered  some  rocks,  which  he  called  Gunbiorn 
Skerry,  and  a  great  country,  of  which  he  brought  the 
news  to  Iceland.  Soon  after  one  Eric  Red,  or  Eric 
the  Red,  was  condemned  at  Thorna^s  Thing,  in  Iceland, 
to  banishment  for  a  murder  he  had  committed.  He 
fitted  out  a  vessel,  and  told  his  friends  he  would  go 


Q 


Chap.  V. 


144  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,  and  find  the  land  which  Gunbiorn  had  seen,  and  come 
back  and  let  them  know  what  kind  of  country  it  was. 
Eric  sailed  west  from  the  Sneefieldsjokulj  in  Iceland, 
to  the  ea,^t  o:oa.st  of  (Ireenlanrl^  and  then  followed  the 
coast  southwards,  looking  for  a  convenient  place  for 
dwelling  in.  He  sailed  westward  round  a  cape  which 
he  called  Hvarf  *,  and  passed  the  first  winter  on  an 
island,  which  from  him  was  called  Eric's  Isle.  After 
passing  three  years  in  examining  the  coast  he  re- 
turned to  Iceland,  and  gave  such  a  fine  account  of  the 
country  that  it  was  called  Greenland  ;  and  the  follow- 
ing year  twenty-five  vessels  with  colonists  set  out 
with  him  to  settle  in  it,  but  only  about  one  half 
reached  their  destination,  some  having  turned  back, 
and  some  being  lost  in  the  ice.  About  fonrtppn  ypn.rs 
after  Eric  was,  settled  in  Greenlandi,.Jii3..JQn  Leif,  who 
afterwards  discovered  Yinland,  went  over  to  ISTorway 
to  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  who  had  him  instructed  in 
Christianity,  or  baptized,  and  sent  a  priest  with  him 
to  Greenland,  who  ba2:)tized  Eric  and  all  the  colonists. 
Many  came  over  from  Iceland  from  time  to  time,  and 
the  country  was  settled  wherever  it  ^vas  inhabitable. 
In  this  account  there  is  nothing  incredible  or  incon- 
sistent. Greenland  was  to  Iceland  what  Iceland  had 
beento^Norway  —  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  surplus 
population,  for  those  who  had  no  land  or  means  of 
liviiig.  Iceland  was  originally  an  aristocratic  republic, 
—  a  settlement  made  by  people  of  family  and  wealth, 
who  alone  could  fit  out  vessels  for  emita-atino'  to  it : 
and  these  landnammen  took  possession  of  the  land.  Of 
the  lower  class  many  in  coarse  of  time  must  have  be- 
come retainers,  tenants,  or  workpeople  under  the  higher 
class,  and  have  been  ready  to  emigrate  to  a  country 

*  Hvarf  appears  a  name  given  to  extreme  capes  from  which  the  coast 
turns  or  bends  in  a  different  direction.  Cape  Wrath,  the  extreme 
westerly  point  of  the  coast  of  Scotland,  has  originally  been  called  Hvarf, 
and  in  time  changed  to  Wrath. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  145 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  V. 


where  they  could  get  land  of  their  own,  and  at  a  dis-  gfg^^RT 
tance  little  more  than  half  of  that  from  Norway  to 
Iceland.  The  discovery  and  colonisation  of  land  within 
a  distance  so  short,  compared  to  the  usual  voyage 
from  Iceland  to  Norway,  is  not  incredible,  nor  won- 
derful. The  means  of  subsistence  in  both  countries 
have  probably  been  very  much  the  same.  Seals,jwhales, 
fi sh  of  various  kinds,  reindeer,  hares,  wild  fowl, 
would  give  subsistence;  oil,  sMns,--feath£i:s,>.Jiirs-!^ 
which  in  the  middle  age  were  in  great  estiraatjo^^^^ 
dresSj  —  would  ^ive  surplus  products  for  exchange. 
Cattle,  if  we  may  believe  the  sagas,  were  kept  in  consi- 
derable numbers.  Corn  was  not  produced  in  either 
country.  The  balance  of  the  natural  products  which 
man  may  subsist  on, —  such  as  game,  reindeer,  seals, 
fish,  and  of  furs  and  feathers  for  barter, — may  have 
been  even  in  favour  of  Greenland.  The  extinction  of 
such  a  colony,  after  existing  for  400  years,  is  certainly 
more  extraordinary  than  its  establishment,  and  almost 
justifies  the  doubt  whether  it  ever  had  existed.  Se- 
veral causes  are  given  for  this  extraordinary  circum- 
stance. One  is  the  gradual  accumulation  of  ice  on 
both  sides  of  this  vast  peninsula,  by  which  not  only 
the  pasturages,  and  temperature  in  which  cattle  could 
subsist,  may  have  been  diminished,  and  with  these  one 
main  branch  of  the  subsistence  of  the  population  ;  but 
also  the  direct  communication  with  small  vessels  coast- 
ing along  the  shores  and  through  the  sounds  of  Green- 
land may  have  been  interrupted,  and  the  voyage  round 
Cape  Farewell  outside  of  the  isles,  and  ice,  and  sounds, 
have  been  too  tempestuous  for  such  vessels  as  they 
possessed.  Another  cause  was  probably  the  great  pesti- 
lence called  the  black  death,  which  appeared  in  Europe 
about  1349,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  more  uni- 
versal and  destructive  than  the  cholera,  the  plague,  or 
any  other  visitation  known  in  the  history  of  the 
human   race.      It  extinguished  entirely  populations 

VOL.  I.  L 


146  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM,    mucli  more  numerous,  and   more  wholesomely  fed, 

DISSERT.  J  ' 

- —  clothed,  and  lodged,  than  we  can  suppose  a  colony  in 
"^'^*  ■  Greenland  to  have  been,  and  it  seems  to  have  raged 
particularly  in  the  north.  It  is  supposed  by  some 
that  this  pestilence  either  swept  off  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  colony,  or  weakened  it  so  much  that  the 
survivors  were  at  last  cut  off  by  the  Skraelingers  or 
Esquimaux,  with  whom  the  colonists  appear  to  have 
been  always  in  hostility.  The  inequality  between  the 
most  contemptible  race  of  savages  and  the  most  civil- 
ised people  of  Europe  would  be  but  small,  or  the  ad- 
vantage probably  on  the  side  of  the  uncivilised,  in  all 
warfare  between  them  before  the  use  of  fire-arms ; 
which,  next  to  Christianity,  has  been  the  great  means 
of  diffusing  and  securing  civilisation  among  the  human 
race.  The  pope's  brief  of  1448,  if  it  be  a  genuine 
document, — and  it  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  the 
archives  of  the  Vatican  by  a  Professor  Mallet  some 
years  ago,  but  how  he  got  there  is  not  shown, — would 
prove  the  truth  of  the  conjecture  which  has  been 
made,  that  the  colonists  were  overpowered  by  the 
Skraelingers.  The  existing  traditions  among  the  Es- 
quimaux*, of  their  having  come  in  their  canoes  and 
surprised  and  killed  all  the  Kabloon  or  European  peo- 
ple in  old  times,  is  not  worth  much,  as  evidently  it  is 
a  tradition  only  of  the  moment  produced  by  leading 
questions  put  to  them.  No  tradition  in  any  country 
seems  to  exist  but  as  an  impersonation,  as  an  account 
of  an  individual  person  doing  a  thing ;  and  it  is  the  in- 
dividual and  his  personal  feats,  not  the  great  act  itself, 
that  is  delivered  by  tradition  as  its  principal  subject 
matter.  Another  cause  was,  that  Queen  Margaret,  on 
whom  the  three  northern    crowns  had  devolved  in 

*  The  Esquimaux  appear,  by  the  narrative  of  his  discoveries  on  the 
north  coast  of  America  by  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Simpson  (1843),  to  be 
by  no  means  the  poor  physically  weak  people  met  with  at  present  in 
Davis's  Straits,  and  described  by  Captain  Parry. 


Chap.   V. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  147 

1387,  had  made  the  trade  to  Greenland,  Iceland,  the  i^Relim. 
Feroe  Isles,  Halogaland,  and  Finland,  a  royal  mono- 
poly, which  could  only  be  carried  on  in  ships  belonging 
to,  or  licensed  by,  the  sovereign ;  and  certain  mer- 
chants who  had  visited  Greenland  about  that  time 
were  accused  of  a  treasonable  violation  of  the  royal 
edict,  we  are  told  by  Torfseus  in  his  "  Grasnlandia 
Antiqua,"  and  only  escaped  punishment  by  pleading 
that  stress  of  weather  had  driven  them  to  those  parts. 
Her  successor,  Eric  of  Pomerania,  was  too  much  en- 
gaged in  Swedish  affairs,  and  his  successor,  Christopher 
of  Bavaria,  in  his  contests  with  the  Hanseatic  League, 
to  think  of  the  colony  of  Greenland.  Under  the 
monopoly  of  trade  the  Icelanders  could  have  no  ves- 
sels, and  no  object  for  sailing  to  Greenland;  and  the 
vessels  fitted  out  by  government,  or  its  lessees,  to 
trade  with  them,  would  only  be  ready  to  leave  Den- 
mark or  Bergen  for  Iceland,  at  the  season  they  ought 
to  have  been  ready  to  leave  Iceland  to  go  to  Green- 
land. The  colony  gradually  fell  into  oblivion.  Its 
former  existence  even  had  become  a  matter  of  dis- 
puted or  neglected  tradition.  Christian  III.,  who 
came  to  the  throne  1534,  abolished  the  prohibition  of 
sailing  to  Greenland ;  and  a  few  feeble  attempts  were 
made  at  discovery  by  him  and  his  successors  from 
time  to  time,  and  at  last  even  these  were  given  up. 
It  was  not  until  1721  that  a  Norwegian  minister, 
Hans  Egide, — one  of  those  rare  men  who  go  on  to 
their  purpose  unmoved  by  any  selfish  interest,  and  to 
whom  fame,  wealth,  honour,  comfort,  are  neither 
object  nor  reward, — resigned  his  living  in  Norway, 
and  obtained  permission,  after  much  difiiculty  and 
many  petitions  to  government,  to  settle  himself  as  a 
missionary  on  the  coast  of  Davis's  Straits  among  the 
Esquimaux.  The  general  opinion  was,  that  the  lost 
colony  of  Old  Greenland  was  situated  on  the  east 
coast  of  the  peninsula,  and  not  within  Davis's  Straits ; 

L  2 


148 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  V. 


and  it  does  not  appear  that  Hans  Egide  himself,  at 
first,  had  any  idea  that  he  was  settling  upon  the  ruined 
seats  of  Christian  predecessors  of  the  same  tongue 
and  mother  country.  It  is  a  curious  paragraph  in  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  showing  how  true  it  is 
that  in  the  tide  of  time  man  and  his  affairs  return  to 
where  they  set  out, — that  Christian  churches,  bishops, 
and  consequently  people  in  some  numbers,  and  in  some 
state  of  civilisation,  had  existed,  been  extinguished, 
and  forgotten,  and  again  on  the  same  spot,  after  the 
lapse  of  400  years,  men  have  attempted  to  live,  colo- 
nise, and  Christianise.  The  feeble  attempt  in  our 
times,  the  struggle  to  subsist,  and  the  trifling  amount 
of  population  in  the  modern  colony  after  a  century, 
are  strangely  in  contrast  with  the  state  of  the  old 
colony.  There  are  but  about  150  Europeans  at  present 
in  these  Danish  colonies  ;  and  the  whole  population 
of  the  natives,  from  Cape  Farewell  as  far  north  as 
man  can  live,  is  reckoned  under  6000  people,  and 
about  five  or  six  vessels  only  are  employed  in  trading 
with  them ;  and  this  is  in  a  country  which  formerly 
subsisted  a  population  of  European  descent,  which 
had  at  least  sixteen  ecclesiastical  establishments  or 
parishes,  a  bishop,  monasteries,  and  consequently  a 
number  greatly  exceeding  150  souls.  The  old  colonists 
do  not  appear  to  have  ever  made  converts  among  the 
natives,  and  their  numbers,  which  must  at  one  time 
have  been  considerable,  appear  to  have  found  abundant 
subsistence ;  for  we  read  in  the  sagas  of  vessels  with 
sixty  men  arriving  in  autumn,  being  subsisted  all 
winter,  and  fitted  out  in  spring,  and  victualled  for 
voyages  of  uncertain  and  long  duration:  and  now  if 
one  of  the  vessels  fitted  out  by  charitable  contribu- 
tions by  the  sect  of  the  Moravians  to  carry  food  to 
their  missionaries  be  delayed  for  a  season,  they  are  in 
dan2:er  of  starvins:.     Is  it  man   or  nature  that  has 


changed  ?      Are  men  less 


vigorous. 


less   energetic, 


KmGS   OF    NORWAY.  149 


Chap.  V. 


less  enduring  and  hardy,  than  in  those  old  times  of  DissEia\ 
the  Northmen  ?  or  is  the  land,  the  sea,  the  climate 
less  adapted  now  for  the  subsistence  of  the  human 
animal  ? 

The  opinion  of  almost  all  antiquaries  was,  that  the 
main  settlement  of  the  old  colonists, — the  Eystribygd, 
with  its  190  townships,  its  town  of  Garda,  its  cathe- 
dral, bishop's  seat,  and  twelve  or  thirteen  churches, — 
was  on  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  somewhere  on  the 
coast  north  of  Cape  Farewell,  inaccessible  now  from 
ice ;  and  the  less  important  Vestribygd  to  have  been 
west  of  Cape  Farewell,  within  Davis's  Straits.  Others 
supposed  that  both  settlements  were  on  the  east  coast 
of  Greenland,  and  that  the  old  colonists  did  not  know 
that  Greenland  had  a  west  coast  from  Cape  Farewell. 
The  opinions  were  founded  on  certain  ancient  sailing 
directions  found  in  the  sagas,  especially  in  a  saga  of 
King  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  in  which  it  is  mentioned  that 
from  Stad,  the  westermost  part  of  Norway,  it  is  a 
voyage  of  seven  days'  sailing  due  west  to  Hornpoint, 
the  eastermost  part  of  Iceland ;  and  that  from  Snee- 
iieldness,  the  point  of  Iceland  nearest  to  Greenland,  it 
is  a  voyage  of  four  days'  sailing,  also  due  west,  to 
Greenland :  and  a  rock  called  Gunbiomskerry  is  stated 
to  be  half-way  between  Iceland  and  Greenland ;  but 
this  course,  says  one  of  the  ancient  accounts  of  un- 
known date,  but  certainly  of  the  14th  century,  ''  was 
the  old  way  of  sailing;  but  now  the  ice  from  the 
northern  gulf  has  set  down  so  near  to  this  skerry, 
that  nobody  can  take  this  course  without  danger  of 
life."  This  rock,  skerry,  or  isle,  midway  between  the 
coast  of  Iceland  and  that  of  Greenland,  is  proved  by 
Scoresby  and  other  navigators  to  have  no  existence ; 
and  the  east  coast  of  Greenland,  as  far  as  it  has  been 
possible  to  explore  it,  is  found  to  be  more  inclement, 
icebound,  and  in  every  way  less  adapted  naturally  to 
afford  subsistence  to  man,  than  the  west  coast  within 

L  3 


150  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SfslERT.  Cape  Farewell ;  although  the  Eystribygd  is  represented 
—  in  all  the  sagas  as  the  most  populous  settlement,  having 
190,  and  the  other  only  90  townships.  It  is  now 
generally  admitted  that  the  east  coast  of  Greenland 
never  was  inhabited  at  all  by  the  old  colonists ;  that 
their  east  and  west  settlements  had  no  reference  to 
being  east  or  west  of  Cape  Farewell,  but  to  being 
easterly  or  westerly  from  some  place  within  Davis's 
Straits,  and  which  formed  their  division  between  the 
two  settlements ;  and  in  this  view  the  east  settlement 
would  be  the  country  nearest  to  Cape  Farewell,  and, 
as  at  present,  the  best  provided  with  the  natural  means 
of  subsistence ;  and  the  western  and  poorer  settlement 
would  be  the  country  beyond  it  to  the  north ;  and 
that  Gunbiornskerry  was  not  in  the  midway,  or  half- 
way, as  it  had  been  interpreted,  in  the  sea  between 
Iceland  and  Greenland,  but  some  island  on  the  east 
coast  of  Greenland,  which  was  half-way,  in  point  of 
distance  and  time,  between  Iceland  and  the  eastern 
settlement  in  Greenland.  From  it  they  took  a  new 
departure,  and  coasted  along,  with  sails  and  oars, 
round  Cape  Hvarf,  or  Cape  Farewell,  and  up  Davis's 
Straits  to  the  eastern  settlement.  Hans  Egide,  his 
son  Paul,  and  others,  had  from  time  to  time  examined 
and  sent  home  accounts  of  remains  of  ancient  build- 
ings which  they  had  found  on  their  missionary  excur- 
sions. Arctander,  as  early  as  1777,  had  made  reports 
of  such  remains.  The  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries 
at  Copenhagen  took  up  the  subject  with  great  zeal  in 
this  century ;  and  researches  have  been  made  of  which 
the  result  is  a  kind  of  synthetic  proof,  as  it  may  be 
called,  of  the  veracity  of  the  saga.  The  remains  of 
former  inhabitation  of  the  country,  of  houses,  paths, 
walls,  stepping-stones,  churches,  foundations  of  rows 
of  dwellings,  show  that  the  saga  accounts  have  not 
been  exaggerated ;  and  it  must  give  every  fair  un- 
prejudiced  reader  a   confidence  which   he   had   not 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  151 

before  in  the  sagas  when  he  finds  in  this  —  the  most    DfJ^KUT'. 
questionable  perhaps  of  all  the  saga  statements — that    ^.^^7"^ 
a  considerable  Icelandic  colony  actually  had  existed 
in  Greenland  from  the  10th  century.     The  facts  they 
state  are  fully  supported  by  the  discoveries  made  on 
the  spot  within  this  century.     A  similar  moral  con- 
fidence in  the  sagas  is  given  to  the  few  saga  readers 
who  happen  tO  be  acquainted  with  the  Orkney  Islands, 
from  finding,  in  the  Orkneyinga  Saga,  a  minute  and 
accurate  knowledge  of  places,  distances,  names,  and 
other  details  of  the  localities  mentioned.     In  this  case 
of  Greenland  the  remains  discovered  carry  conviction 
to  all.     At  Karkortog,  a  branch  of  a  long  fiord  called 
Igalik,  in  latitude  60°  50'  north,  and  longitude  44°  37', 
near  to  the  settlement  of  Julianahope,  is  a  ruin  of  a 
building  51  feet  in  length  by  25  feet  in  breadth,  with 
well-built  stone  walls,  4  feet  thick,  standing  to  the 
height  of  16  and  18  feet;  and  with  two  round  arched 
windows,  one  in  each  gable,  and  four  other  windows 
not  arched,  on  each  side,  and  with  two  door-ways,  — 
evidently  intended  for  a  church.     This  appears  the 
most  perfect  of  the   ruins    yet    discovered.     Foun- 
dations, with  walls  in  some  parts  4  feet  high,  have 
been  found  of  buildings  120  feet  in  length  by  100  feet 
in  breadth ;  and  from  such  rows  being  found  in  various 
places,  the  families  may  be  supposed  to  have  lived  in 
contiguous  houses.     But  single  dwellings  also  have 
been   used,    as   foundations    overgrown  with   dwarf- 
willow,  and  the  berry-bearing  shrubs,  are  found  in 
favourable  situations  on  the  sides  of  the  fiords.     In 
what  appears  to  have  been  a  church,  the  foundations 
being  96  feet  long  by  48  feet  broad,  at  the  extremity 
of  the  fiord  Igalikkoi,  latitude  60°  55^,  a  stone  with 
a  Runic  inscription  was  found  in  1830;  and  to  the 
readers  of  Runic  the  inscription  ofi*ered  no  difficulty:  — 
"  Yigdis,  M.  D.  Hvilir  Her.     Glcede  Gud  Sal  Hennar  ;'^ 
that  is,  '^  Vigdisa  rests  here :  God  bless  her  soul."    The 

L  4 


152 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT, 

Chap.  V. 


meaning  of  the  letters  M.  D.  following  the  name,  and 
which  probably  refer  to  the  person's  family,  as  Mag- 
nus's Daughter,  or  some  similar  distinctive  use,  form 
the  only  obscurity.     In  1831  the  missionary  De  Fries 
found  near  Igigeitum,  in  latitude  60°,  a  tombstone 
used  as  a  door-lintel  to  a  Greenland  house,  with  an 
inscription  in  Roman  characters  —  "  Her  Hvilir  Hro 
Kolgrims;"  which  is,  "  Here  rests  Hroar  or  Hroaldr 
Kolgrimson."     But  the  most  interesting  of  these  in- 
scriptions is  one  discovered  in  1824,  in  the  island 
Kingigtorsook  in  Baffin's  Bay,  in  latitude  72°  55'  north, 
longitude  56°  5'  west  of  GreeuAvich ;  as  it  shows  hoAV 
bold  these  Northmen  have  been  in  their  seamanship, 
and  how  far  they  had  penetrated  into  regions  supposed 
to  have  been  unvisited  by  man  before  the  voyages  of 
our  modern  navigators.     It  now  appears  that  Captain 
Parry  and  Captain  Lyon  had  only  sailed  over  seas 
which  had  been  explored  by  these  Northmen  in  the 
12th   century.     The  inscription  found  in  this  high 
latitude  was  sent  to  three  of  the  greatest  antiquaries 
and    Runic    scholars   in    Europe  —  Finn    Magnusen, 
Professor  Rask,  and  Dr.  Bryniulfson  in  Iceland  ;  and, 
without  communication  mth  each  other,  they  arrived 
at  the  same  interpretation,  viz.  ^'ErlingSighvatson  and 
Biorne  Thordarson  and  Eindrid  Oddson,  on  Saturday 
before  Ascension  Week,  raised  these  marks  and  cleared 
ground.   1135."     The  meaning  is,   that  in  token   of 
having  taken  possession  of  the  land,  they  had  raised 
marks  or  mounds  of  which  Kragh  and   Stephenson 
observed  some  vestiges  on  the  spot  Avhere  the  inscrip- 
tion was  found,  and  had  cleared  a  space  of  ground 
around,  being  a  symbol  of  appropriation  of  the  land. 
The  interesting  part  of  this  inscription  has  not  been 
sufficiently  noticed  and  examined.     In  the  Romish 
church  the  days  of  the  Ascension  Week  are  of  peculiar 
solemnity.     The  priests,  accompanied  by  the  people, 
walk  in  long  processions  with  lighted  torches  around 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  153 

the  churches  and  consecrated  ground,  chanting,  and    ^{^s^^J^t 

sprinkling  holy  water.  From  the  numerous  processions      

going  on  at   this  festival,  the  Ascension  Week  was 
called  the  Gang  Dayis,  or  Ganging  Dayis,  in  old  Scotch, 
—  is  still  called  the  Gang  Week  in  some  parts  of  Eng- 
land,— was  called  Gang  Dagas  in  Anglo-Saxon, — and 
Ascension  Day,  Gagn  Dagr  in  the  Icelandic ;  and  the 
going  in  procession,  not  the  Gagn  or  Gain  of  Spiritual 
Victory,  has  given  the  name  to  the  Dies  Yictoriae  in 
the  northern   languages.    It  appears  that  there  are 
two  festivals  which  might  be  called  Gagn  Dagr  in  the 
Romish  church,  from  their  being  celebrated  by  proces- 
sions: one  is  the  Dies  YictorisBMaximus,  about  the  24th 
of  April ;  the  other  procession  day  is  about  the  14th  of 
May ;  and  the  Laukardakin  fyrir  Gakndag  of  the  inscrip- 
tion may  be  the  Saturday  before  either  of  these  pro- 
cession days.  But,  to  whichsoever  it  refers,  the  people 
who  made  these  marks  at  that  time  of  the  year  must 
have  wintered  upon  the  island.     By  the  accounts  of 
all  northern  voyagers,  the  sea  in  Baffin's  Bay  is  not 
navigable  at  or  near  Ascension  Week,  or  any  church 
festival  to  which  Gakn  Dagr  applies.    We  must  either 
suppose   that  these  Northmen,  without  any  of  our 
modern  outfit  of  ships  for  wintering  in  such  high 
latitudes,  did  not  only  winter  there,  but  found  the 
country  so  endurable  as  to  take  possession  of  it  by  a 
formal  act  indicating    an  intention  to  settle  in  the 
island ;  or  we  must  suppose  that  the  cold,  within  so 
recent  an  historical  period  as  800  years  ago,  has  in- 
creased so  nmch  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  globe, 
that  countries  are  now  uninhabitable  by  man  which 
were  formerly  not  so.    Both,  perhaps,  may  be  taken  into 
account.     The  capability  of  enduring  cold  or  heat  in 
extreme  degrees  may  be  acquired  by  individuals  or 
tribes,  and  the  habits  and  functions  of  the  body  be- 
come adapted  to  the  temperature.     The  advance  of 
ice  locally  in  Davis's  Straits,  and  on  the  east  coast  of 


DISSERT 
Chap.  V 


154  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

PRELIM.  Greenland,  seems  also  ascertained  by  the  yearly  in- 
crease of  the  fields  of  ice  in  the  neighbouring  seas 
within  the  experience  of  our  whale  fishers. 

The  discovery  of  America,  or  Yinland,  in  the  11th 
century^  by  the  same  race  of  enduring  enterprising 
seamen,  is  not  less  satisfactorily  established  by  docu- 
mentary  evidence  than  the  discovery  and  colonisation 
of  Greenland ;  but  it  rests  entirely  upon  documentary 
evidence,  which  cannot,  as  in  the  case  of  Greenland, 
be  substantiated  by  any  thing  to  be   discovered  in 
America.     One  or  two   adventurers  made  voyages, 
came   to   new  countries  to  the  south   and  west   of 
Greenland,   landed,   repeated   their  visits,    and  even 
remained  for  one  or  two  years  trading  for  skins  with 
the  natives,  and  felling  timber  to  take  home  in  their 
ships ;  but  they  establislied  no  colony,  l^ft  none  behiiid 
them  to  multiply,  and,  as  in  Greenland,  to  construct, 
in  stone,  memorials  of  their  existence  on  the  coast  of 
America.    All  that  can  be  proved,  or  that  is  required 
to  be  proved,  for  establishing  the  priority  of  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  the  Northmen,  is  that  the  saga, 
or  traditional  account  of  these  voyages  in  the  jjth 
cent|iry  was  committed  to  writing  at  a  known  date, 
viz.  between  1387  and  18 9^^^^  in  a  manuscript  of  un- 
questionable  authenticity,  of  which  these  particular 
sagas  or  accounts  relative  to  Yinland  form  but  a  small 
portion ;  an,d  that  this  known  date  was  eighty  years 
before  Columbus  visited  Iceland  to  obtain  nautical 
information,  viz.  in  1477,  when  Iia,must  have  heard 
of  this  written  account  of  Vinland;  and  il_was.-nat 
till  IVJ'2  that  lie  disco^X'^ed  xVmerica.     This  simple 
fact,  established  on  documents  altogether  incontro- 
vertible, is  sufiicient  to  prove  all  that  is  wanted  to  be 
proved,  or  can  be  proved,  and  is  much  more  clearly 
and  ably  stated  by  Thormod  Torfa3US,  the  great  anti- 
quary of  the  last  century,  than  it  has  been  since,  in 
his  very  rare  little  tract,  "  Historia  Vinlandiaj  Anti- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  155 

quae,  1707."  This,  however,  has  not  been  thought  5fs|^}^^>- 
sufficient  by  modern  antiquaries,  and  great  research  — 
and  talent  have  been  expended  in  overlaying  this 
simple  documentary  fact,  on  which  alone  the  claim  of 
the  Icelanders  to  the  priority  of  discovery  rests,  with 
a  mass  of  documents  of  secondary  importance  and  no 
validity.  These  are  of  secondary  importance;  because 
the  circumstances  which  led  to  or  happened  upon  these 
voyages,  the  family  descent,  or  even  identity  of  the 
adventurers,  and  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  details 
related,  do  not  either  confirm  or  shake  the  simple  fact 
on  which  every  thing  rests, — that  .aalisJtiovery.Qf  ja.,j]ie:a:, 
land  to  the  west_and  south  was  inade  and  recorded, 
taken  out  of  the  niere  traditionary  s^tate^^an^^ 
writing  in  1387,  or  100  years  before  Columbus's^ first 
voyage.  They  are  of  no  validity  ;  because,  after  Co- 
lumbus's first  voyage  in  1492,  the  seafaring  people  in 
every  country  would  be  talking  of  and  listening  to 
accounts  of  discoveries,  new  or  old,  —  imagination 
would  be  let  loose,  —  and  old  sagas  would  be  filled 
up  and  new  invented ;  so  that  no  document  relative 
to  this  question  is  of  real  validity  which  is  not  proved 
at  setting  out  to  be  older  than  1492, — that  is  to  say, 
not  merely  an  older  story  which  may  have  circulated 
in  the  traditionary  state  from  the  10th  or  11th  cen- 
tury, but  older  than  1492  on  paper  or  parchment. 
Saga  antiquaries  are  sometimes  given  to  confounding 
together  in  their  speculations  these  two  very  distinct 
ages  of  their  documents.  The  only  document  of  this 
dnd  is  the  one  pointed  out  by  TorfaBus  in  1707,  which 
is  in  itself  good  and  sufficient,  and  beyond  all  sus- 
picion ;  and  to  link  it  to  documents  of  uncertain  or 
suspicious  date,  or  to  details  which  may  or  may  not 
DC  true,  and  which  require  the  aid  of  imagination, 
prejudice,  or  good  will  to  believe,  as  well  as  of  sober 
judgment,  is  Aveakening,  not  strengthening,  the  argu- 


Chap.  V. 


156  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    nient.    Torfaeus  kindled  a  light  which  the  moths  have 
gathered  about,  and  almost  put  out. 

In  1697  Peringskiold  published  the  "Heimskringla" 
of  Snorro  Sturleson,  with  a  Latin  and  Swedish  trans- 
lation of  the  Icelandic.  It  was  discovered  and  pointed 
out  by  Torfseus,  that  Peringskiold  must  have  had  some 
inferior  manuscript  of  the  work  before  him,  because 
eight  chapters  of  the  Saga  of  King  Olaf  Tryggves- 
son,  viz.  from  Chapter  105.  to  Chapter  113.,  are  in- 
terpolated, and  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  genuine 
manuscript  of  Snorro's  work.  These  eight  chapters 
contain  the  accounts  of  the  voyages  of  Leif  and  of 
Karlsefne  to  Vinland.  There  is  internal  evidence  in 
Snorro's  work  itself  that  these  eight  chapters  are  a 
clumsy  interpolation  by  Peringskiold,  or  his  authority ; 
for  they  interrupt  Snorro's  narrative  in  the  most  in- 
teresting period  of  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson's  Hfe,  and 
have  no  connection  with  the  transactions  or  personages 
preceding  or  foUomng ;  whereas  all  Snorro's  episodes 
are,  with  surprising  art  and  judgment,  connected  with 
what  goes  before  or  is  to  follow,  and  are  brought  in 
exactly  at  the  right  place.  It  may  be  thought,  at 
first  sight,  that  the  very  circumstance  of  a  man  of 
Snorro's  knowledge  and  judgment  in  the  sagas  not 
knowing,  or  knowing  not  adopting,  the  account  of  the 
discovery  of  Vinland  given  in  these  eight  chapters 
subsequently  interpolated  in  his  work,  is  conclusive 
against  their  value  and  authenticity.  But  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  although  he  probably  knew  of  them, 
the  subject  was  altogether  foreign  to  his  work.  Yin- 
land  was  an  object  of  no  interest  in  his  days,  and  had 
not,  hke  Greenland,  Iceland,  the  Feroe  Isles,  or  Orkney, 
been  occupied  as  a  colony,  or  part  of  the  dominions  of 
Norway,  and  had  not  employed  any  of  the  historical 
personages  of  whom  he  treats ;  and  therefore  it  would 
have  been  inconsistent  vdih  his  work  to  introduce  the 
obscure,  and  in  his  time  unimportant  fact,  of  the  dis- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


157 


covery  of  new  land,  or  the  adventures  of  the  discover- 
ers. The  eight  chapters  in  question,  by  whomsoever 
they  were  interpolated  into  Snorro  Sturleson's  work, 
proved  to  be  taken,  with  few  variations,  and  none  of 
any  importance,  from  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Saga 
of  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson  in  the  "  Codex  Flatoiensis." 
This  saga  gives  more  details  of  the  reign  of  that  king 
than  Snorro  Sturleson's  saga  of  it,  and  is  no  doubt 
the  source  from  which  he  drew  his  account,  using  it 
often  verbatim. 

The  "  Flateyar  Annall,  or  Codex  Flatoiensis,"  by 
far  the  most  important  of  Icelandic  manuscripts,  takes 
its  name  from  the  island  Flato,  in  Bredefiord  in  Ice- 
land, where  it  had  been  long  preserved,  and  where 
Bishop  Swendson  of  Skalholt  purchased  it,  about  1 650, 
from  the  owner,  Jonas  Torfeson,  for  King  Frederic  III., 
giving  in  exchange  for  it  the  perpetual  exemption 
from  land-tax  of  a  small  estate  of  the  owner.  The 
manuscript  is  in  large  folio,  beautifully  written  on 
parchment.  On  the  first  page  stands  —  "  This  book 
is  owned  by  Ion  Hakonson.  Here  are,  first,  songs; 
then  how  Norway  was  inhabited  or  settled ;  then  of 
Eric  Yidforla  (the  far-travelled)  ;  thereafter  of  Olaf 
Tryggvesson,  and  all  his  deeds  * ;  then  next  the  saga 
of  King  Olaf  the  Saint,  with  all  his  deeds,  and  there- 
Avith  the  sagas  of  the  Orkney  Earls ;  then  the  saga  of 
Swerrer,  and  thereafter  the  saga  of  Hakon  the  Old, 
with  the  sagas  of  King  Magnus  his  son ;  then  are 
deeds  of  Einar  Sokkeson  of  Greenland,  thereafter  of 
Helge  and  Ulf  the  Bad ;  then  begin  annals  from  the 
time  the  world  was  made,  showing  all  to  this  present 
time  that  is  come.  The  priest  Ion  Thordarson  has 
written  from  Eric  Yidforla,  and  the  two  sagas  of  the 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 


Chap.  V. 


*  Thattr  does  not  exactly  mean  deeds,  but  excerpts  or  short  accounts 
of  deeds.  We  use  in  Scotland  the  expression,  ^^  a  tait  o'  woo/' — a  little 
wool  pulled  out  of  a  fleece ;  which  corresponds  to  the  Icelandic  thattr, 
an  excerpt. 


158  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

piiELiM.    Olafs ;  and  priest  Magnus  Thorhallsson  has  written 

from  thence,  and  also  what  is  ^\Tritten  before,  and  has 

illuminated  the  whole.  God  Almighty  and  the  Holy 
Virgin  Mary  bless  those  who  wrote,  and  him  who 
dictated."  The  writer  of  this  paragraph  says,  that 
the  annals  written  out  by  the  priest  Magnus  Thorhalls- 
son from  the  beginning  of  the  world  come  down  to 
the  present  time,  and  he  has  consequently  been  a  con- 
temporary of  the  scribe  Magnus  Thorhallsson.  These 
annals  end  with  the  year  1395,  and  the  time  at  which 
the  writing  was  concluded  is  thus  distinctly  ascer- 
tained. The  time  at  which  the  writing  was  com- 
menced is  also  distinctly  ascertained ;  for  in  the  piece 
on  "  how  Norway  was  inhabited,"  in  giving  the  series 
of  kings,  it  is  said,  on  coming  to  King  Olaf  Hakonson, 
"  He  was  king  when  this  book  was  writing;  and  then 
were  elapsed  from  the  birth  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
1300  and  80  and  7  years."  The  dates  of  the  begin- 
ning and  ending  of  this  beautiful  piece  of  penmanship 
are  thus  fixed,  and  the  handwriting  of  each  of  the 
scribes  perfectly  known.  The  "  Codex  Flatoiensis  " 
is  not  an  original  work  of  one  author,  but  a  collection 
of  sagas  transcribed  from  older  manuscripts,  and  ar- 
ranged in  so  far  chronologically  that  the  accounts  are 
placed  under  the  reign  in  which  the  events  they  tell 
of  happened,  although  not  connected  with  it  or  with 
each  other.  Under  the  saga  of  Olaf  Tryggvesson  are 
comprehended  the  sagas  of  the  Feroe  Islands ;  of  the 
Yikings  of  Jomsburg ;  of  Eric  Red,  and  Leif  his  son, 
the  discoverers  of  Greenland  and  Vinland ;  and  the 
voyages  of  Karlsefne  to  Vinland,  and  all  the  circum- 
stances, true  or  false,  of  their  adventures.  It  is  evi- 
dent_tliat_jthe_main  fact  is  that  ofa  discovery  of  a 
western  land  being  recordecLin  wntingjbetween  138T 
and  1395  ;  and  whether  the  minor  circumstances^such 
as  the  personal  adventures  of  the  discoverers,  or  the 
exact  localities  in  America  which  the}^  visited,  be  or 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  159 


Chap.  V. 


be  not  known,  cannot  affect  this  fact,  —  nor  the  very  j5'/|f^{JJ; 
strong  side-fact,  that  eighty  years  after  this  fact  was 
recorded  in  writing,  in  no  obscure  manuscript,  but  in 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  works  of  penmanship  in 
Europe,  Columbus  came  to  Iceland^  from  Bristol,  in 
]477,  on  purpose  to  gain  nautical  information,  and 
must  have  heard  of  the  written  accounts  of  discoveries 
recorded  in  it.  It  is  as  great  an  error  to  prove  too 
much  as  to  prove  too  little.     Enough  is  proved  for 


*  The  English  trade  with  Iceland  appears  to  have  heen  very  con- 
siderable. Annals  in  manuscript  of  1411  and  1413,  quoted  by  Finn 
Magnuson_,  in  his  Treatise  on  the  English  Trade  to  Iceland  in  the 
"  Nordisk  Tidsskrift  for  Oldkyndighed/'  mention,  besides  plundering  and 
piracy  committed  by  the  English,  proclamations  of  Eric  of  Pomerania 
against  trading  with  them.  In  1413  there^were  thirty  English  vessels  on 
the  Iceland  coast.  In  1415,  in  the  harbour  of  Havnefiord  there  were 
six  English  vessels  at  one  time.  The  trade  had  been  made  a  monopoly, 
and  the  English  appear  to  have  forcibly  broken  through  its  regulations, 
in  spite  of  the  proclamations  of  their  own  and  the  Norwegian  sovereign. 
The  Icelandic  bishops  at  that  time  —  viz.  John  Johnson,  bishop  of 
Holum,and  his  successor  in  1429^  John  Williamson — were  Englishmen; 
and  also  the  bishop  of  Skalholt  in  1430,  John  Garrickson,  appears  to 
have  come  from  England.  Bristol  and  Hull  appear,  in  1474,  to  have 
had  a  great  share  of  the  trade  to  Iceland.  It  appears,  from  the  Memoir 
of  Columbus  by  his  son  Fernando,  that  in  February,  1477;,  his  father 
visited  Tyle  (Thule)  or  Friesland,  "  an  island  as  large  as  England, 
with  which  the  English,  especially  those  of  Bristol,  drive  a  great  trade." 
It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  he  mentions  he  came  to  the  island 
without  meeting  any  ice,  and  the  sea  was  not  frozen ;  and  in  an  au- 
thentic document  of  March  in  the  same  year,  1477>  it  is  mentioned  as 
a  kind  of  testimony  of  the  act  of  which  the  document  is  the  protocol, 
that  there  was  no  snow  whatever  upon  the  ground  at  the  date  it  was 
executed, — a  rare  circumstance,  by  which  it  would  be  held  in  remem- 
brance. In  the  year  1477^  Magnus  Eyolfson  was  bishop  of  Skalholt: 
he  had  been  abbot  of  the  monastery  at  Helgafel,  where  the  old  accounts 
concerning  Vinland  and  Greenland  were,  it  is  supposed,  originally 
written  and  preserved,  and  the  discoverers  were  people  originally  from 
that  neighbourhood.  Columbus  came  in  spring  to  the  south  end  of 
Iceland,  where  Whalefiord  was  the  usual  harbour  ;  and  it  is  known  that 
Bishop  Magnus,  exactly  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  was  on  a  visitation 
in  that  part  of  his  see,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  Columbus  must  have 
met  and  conversed  with  him.  These  are  curious  coincidences  of  small 
circumstances,  which  have  their  weight.  —  See  Captain  Zahrtmann  on 
the  Voyage  of  Zeno,  and  F.  Magnuson  on  the  English  Trade  to  Iceland, 
2d  vol.  of  Nordisk  Tidsskrift,  1833. 


Chap.  V. 


160  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

PRELIM,  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  priority  of  discovery ; 
but  when  the  northern  antiquaries  proceed  to  prove 
the  details, — to  establish  the  exact  points  in  the  state 
of  Massachusetts  at  which  Leif  put  up  his  wooden 
booths,  and  where  Karlsefne  and  his  mfe  Gudrid 
lived,  and  Freidisa  committed  her  wholesale  slaughter, 
and  to  make  imaginary  discoveries  of  Runic  inscriptions 
and  buildings  erected  by  Northmen  in  Rhode  Island, — 
they  are  poets,  not  antiquaries.  The  subject  is  of  so 
much  interest  both  in  Europe  and  America,  and  so 
much  has  been  written  in  very  expensive  books  to 
prove  what  is  not  susceptible  of  proof,  and  of  no  im- 
portance if  proved,  that  a  few  pages  must  be  bestowed 
on  it. 

*^From  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  Northmen  in 
the  11th  century,  —  from  their  habits  of  living  on 
board  ship,  on  their  ordinary  viking  cruises,  for  many 
more  weeks  and  months  together  than  are  required  for 
a  voyage  from  Iceland  to  America, — from  their  being 
at  home  on  board,  and  accustomed  on  their  sea  expe- 
ditions up  the  Mediterranean,  to  the  White  Sea,  and 
to  Iceland  direct  across  the  ocean,  to  a  sea  life, — it  is 
not  improbable  that  they  should  have  undertaken  a 
voyage  of  discovery  to  the  west  and  south,  and  have 
renewed  it  when  they  found  a  land  which  produced 
building  timber  and  skins  to  repay  them.  It  was 
certainly  not  seamanship  that  was  wanting  among 
them  in  those  ages,  but  science  only.  The  class  of 
vessels  in  which  they  sailed  made  them  in  a  great 
measure  independent  of  the  science  of  navigation; 
because  their  vessels  were  of  an  easy  draught  of 
water,  and  they  had  a  command  with  their  oars  and 
their  numerous  crews  over  their  vessels,  which  made 
a  lee  shore,  or  other  unfavourable  position,  of  no  such 
importance  as  to  modern  ships.  In  size,  and  as  sea- 
boats,  their_  vessels  in  general  were  probably  equal  or 
superior  to^ose  in  which  Columbus  made  his  first 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  161 


DISSERT, 
Chap.  V. 


voyage.  One  of  Columbus's  vessels  is  understood  to  5J|f^^^^ 
have  been  only  a  half-decked  craft.  Sebastian  Cabot, 
and  some  of  the  earliest  explorers  of  Baffin's  Bay, 
sailed  in  vessels  under  thirty  tons.  The  Anna  Pink, 
which  accompanied  Lord  Anson  half  round  the  world, 
was  a  vessel  of  eighteen  tons.  In  their  shipping,  sea- 
manship, and  habits  of  sea  life  and  endurance,  there 
was  certainly  nothing  to  make  it,  a  priori^  improbable 
that  they  should  undertake  a  voyage  of  discovery  to 
the  south  and  west  of  Greenland.  The  details  of  ad- 
ventures on  such  a  voyage  may  not  be  correct,  and 
yet  the  fact  itself  true.  The  following  is  an  abridg- 
ment, as  short  as  possible,  of  the  details,  and  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  them  as  to  the  loca|j,ti^i=^  ^^ 
America  which  thp.y  yi^itprl.  The  eight  chapters 
themselves  are  annexed  in  the  Appendix. 

Eric  Bed,  in  spring,  986,  emigrated  from  Iceland  to 
Greenland  with^Heriulf  Bardson.  He  fixed  his  abode 
at  Brattalid,  in  Ericsfiord ;  and  Heriulf  at  Heriulfs- 
ness.  ^iorne,  the  son  of  the  latter,  was  absent  in 
Norway  at  the  time,  and  finding  on  his  return  that 
his  father  was  gone,  resolved  to  follow  him,  and  put 
to  sea.  As  winter  was  approaching,  they  had  bad 
weather,  northerly  winds  and  fogs,  and  did  not  know 
where  they  were.  When  it  cleared  up  they  saw  a 
land  without  mountains,  but  with  many  small  hills, 
and  covered  with  wood.  This  not  answering  the 
description  of  Greenland,  they  turned  about  and  left 
it  on  the  larboard  hand ;  and  sailing  two  days  they 
came  to  another  land,  flat,  and  covered  with  wood. 
Then  they  stood  out  to  sea  with  a  south-west  wind, 
and  saw  a  third  land,  high,  and  the  mountains  covered 
with  glaciers ;  and  coasting  along  it  they  saw  it  was 
an  island.  Biorne  did  not  land,  but  stood  out  to  sea 
with  the  same  south-west  wind,  and  sailing  with  fresh 
gales  reached,  in  four  days  more,  Heriulfsness  in 
Greenland,  his  father's  abode.  ^ 

VOL.  I.  M 


162  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  V. 


pRELTivi.         Some  years  after  this,  supposed  to  be  ahmit  994: 
Biorne  was  in  Norway  on  a  visit  to  Earl  Eric,  and 
was  much  blamed,  when  he  told  of  his  discovery,  for 
not  having  examined  the  countries  more  accurately. 
Leif,  a_son  of  Eric  Red^  bought  his  ship,  when  Biorne 
returned  to  Greenland,  and  with  j,„crew  of  th^^ 
men  set  out,  about  the  year -1000,  to  lool^  for  tb£se 
lands.     He  came  first  to  the  land  which  Biorne  had 
seen  last,  landed,  found  no  grass,  but  vast  icy  moun- 
tains in  the  interior,  and  between  them  and  the  shore 
a  plain  of  flat  slaty  stones  (hella),  and    called  the 
country*Hellaland.     They  put  to   sea,  and  came  to 
another  country,  which  was  level,  covered  with  woods, 
with  many  clifFs  of  white  sand,  and  a  low  coast,  and 
called  the  country  Parkland  (outfield  or  woodland). 
They  again  stood  out  to  sea  with  a  north-east  wmd, 
and  after  two  days'  sailing  made  land,  and  came  to  an 
island  eastward  of  the  mainland,  and  entered  into  a 
channel   between  the  island  and  a  point  projecting 
north-east  from  the  mainland.     They  sailed  eastward, 
saw  much  ground  laid  dry  at  ebb  tide,  and  at  last 
went  on  shore  at  a  place  where  a  i^iver  which  came 
fcpm  a  lake  fell  into  the  sea.     They  brought  their 
vessel  through  the  river  into  the  lake,  and  anchored. 
Here  they  put  up  some  log  huts ;  but,  after  resolving 
to  winter  there,  they  constructed   larger   booths   or 
houses.     After  lodging  themselves,  Leif  divided  his 
people  into  two  companies,  to  be  employed  by  turns 
in  exploring  the   country,  and   working   about   the 
houses.     One  of  the  exploring  party,  a  German  by 
birth,  called  Tyrker,  was   one    day  missing.     They 
went  out  to  look  for  him,  and  soon  met  him,  talking 
German,  rolling  his  eyes,  and  beside  himself.     He  at 
last  told  them  in  Norse,  as  they  did  not  understand 
German,  that  he  had  been  up  the  country,  and  had 
discovered  vines  and  grapes;  adding,  "that  he  should 
knoAv  what  vines  and  grapes  were,  as  he  was  born  in 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  163 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  V. 


a  country  in  which  they  were  in  plenty."  They  now  i'}l|^{*| 
occupied  themselves  in  hewing  timber  for  loading  the 
YeaadLaAd,.  collecting  grapes  with  which  they  filled  the 
sh i p^s  .bflat.  Leif  caUed  jh ej30untry  Vinland.  They 
sailed  in  spring,  and  returned  to  Greenland. 
^Xeif 's  brother,  Thorwald,  set  out,  inTHe^ear  1002, 
to  Yinland  in  Leif's  vessel,  and  came  to  his  booths  or 
houses,  and  wintered  there.  In  spring  Thorwald 
sent  a  party  in  the  boat  to  explore  the  coast  to  the 
south.  They  found  the  country  beautiful,  Avell 
wooded,  with  but  little  space  between  the  woods  and 
the  sea,  and  long  stretches  of  white  sand,  and  also 
many  islands  and  shoals ;  and  on  one  island  found  a 
corn  barn,  but  no  other  traces  of  people.  They  re- 
turned in  autumn  to  Leif's  booths.  Next  summer 
Thorwald  sailed  with  the  large  vessel,  first  eastward, 
then  northward,  past  a  headland  opposite  to  another 
headland,  and  forming  a  bay.  They  called  the  first 
headland  Kialarness  (Keel  Ness).  They  then  sailed 
into  the  nearest  fiord,  to  a  headland  covered  with 
wood.  Thorwald  went  on  shore,  and  was  so  pleased 
that  he  said  ''he  should  like  to  stay  there."  On 
going  on  board  they  observed  three  hillocks  on  the 
sandy  shore.  They  went  up  to  them,  and  found  they 
were  three  canoes,  with  three  Skrselingers  under  each. 
They  killed  eight  of  them,  and  one  made  his  escape  in 
his  canoe.  A  great  number  afterwards  came  in  skin- 
canoes  and  attacked  them.  They  were  repulsed ;  but 
Thorwald  was  wounded  by  an  arrow  and  died,  and 
according  to  his  directions  was  buried  at  the  promon- 
tory where  he  had  expressed  his  wish  to  stay,  or  take 
up  his  abode,  Avith  a  cross  at  the  head  and  one  at  the 
foot  of  his  grave  ;  and  the  place  was  called  Crossness. 
His  companions  returned  to  Leif's  booths,  wintered 
there,  and  in  spring  sailed  to  Greenland. 

Thorstein,  Eric's   third  son,  set   out  in   the   same 
ship,  with  his  wife  Gudrid,  and  a  crew  of  twenty-five 

M   2 


164  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  V. 


PRELIM,    men,  to  brino-  home  his  brother's  body ;   but  after 

DISSERT.  T  CD  , 

driving  about  all  summer  they  returned,  without 
making  the  land,  to  Lysnfiord  in  Greenland,  where 
Thorstein  died,  and  his  wife  Gudrid  returned  to 
Ericsiiord. 

Next  summer,  viz.  1006,  two  ships  from  Ice- 
land came  to  Greenland.  One  was  commanded  by 
Thorfinn,  called  Karlsefne  (of  manly  endowment) ; 
the  other  by  Biorne  Grimulfson.  A  third  ship  was 
commanded  by  Thorward.  Karlsefne  had  married 
in  the  course  of  the  winter  Gudrid,  the  widow  of 
Thorwald,  and  by  her  advice  resolved  on  going  to 
Yinland  in  spring.  Thorward  had  married  Freydisa, 
a  natural  daughter  of  Eric  ;  and  the  three  ships  set 
out  with  160  men,  and  all  kinds  of  live  stock,  to 
establish  a  colony  in  Vinland.  They  sailed  first 
to  the  Westerbygd  (within  Davis's  Straits),  and  to 
Blarney  (Disco  Isle).  From  thence  they  sailed  in 
a  southerly  direction  to  Hellaland,  where  they  found 
many  foxes.  From  thence,  sailing  two  days  to  the 
south,  they  came  to  Markland,  a  wooded  country 
stocked  with  animals.  Then  they  sailed  south-west 
for  a  long  time,  having  the  land  to  starboard,  until 
they  came  to  Kialarness,  where  there  were  great  de- 
serts, and  long  beaches  and  sands.  When  they  had 
passed  these,  the  land  was  indented  with  inlets.  They 
had  two  Scots  with  them.  Hake  and  Hekia,  whom 
Leif  had  formerly  received  from  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson,  and  who  were  very  swift  of  foot.  They  were 
put  on  shore  to  explore  the  country  to  the  south-west, 
and  in  three  days  they  returned  with  some  grapes, 
and  some  ears  of  wheat,  which  grew  wild  in  that 
country.  They  continued  their  course  until  they  came 
to  a  fiord  which  penetrated  far  into  the  land.  Off  the 
mouth  of  it  was  an  island  with  strong  currents  round 
it,  and  also  up  in  the  fiord.  They  found  vast  num- 
bers of  eyder  ducks  on  the  island,  so  that  they  could 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  165 

scarcely  walk  Avithout  treading  on  their  eggs.  They  JJ^I^jfJ,- 
called  the  island  Straumay  (Stream  Isle),  and  the  — • 
fiord  Straumfiord.  A  party  of  eight  men,  com- 
manded by  Thorhall,  left  them  here,  and  went  north 
to  seek  for  Yinland.  Karlsefne  proceeded  with 
Snorro,  Biorne,  and  the  rest,  in  all  151  men,  south- 
wards. Those  who  went  northwards  passed  Kialar- 
ness  ;  but  were  driven  by  westerly  gales  oiF  the 
land,  and  to  the  coast  of  Ireland,  where,  it  was  after- 
wards reported,  they  were  made  slaves.  Karlsefne 
and  his  men  arrived  at  the  place  where  a  river 
issuing  from  a  lake  falls  into  the  sea.  Opposite  to 
the  mouth  of  the  river  were  large  islands.  They 
steered  into  the  lake,  and  called  the  place  Hop  (the 
Hope).  On  the  low  grounds  they  found  fields  of 
wheat  growing  wild,  and  on  the  rising  grounds  vines. 
**One  morning  a  number  of  skin-canoes  came  to  them. 
The  people  were  sallow-coloured,  ill-looking,  with  ugly 
heads  of  hair,  large  eyes,  and  broad  cheeks ;  and  after 
looking  at  the  strangers  they  retired  round  the  cape 
to  the  south-west.  Karlsefne  put  up  dwelling-houses 
a  little  above  the  bay,  and  they  wintered  there :  no 
snow  fell,  and  their  cattle  lived  in  the  open  field.  On 
the  shortest  day  the  sun  was  above  the  horizon  in  the 
watch  before  and  after  mid-day  watch.  A  number  of 
canoes  came  a^gain  from  the  south-west,  holding^  up  a 
white  shield  as  a  signal  of  peace^  and  bartered  grey 
furs  for  bits  of  cloth,  and  for  milk  soup.  The  bull 
belonging  to  the  party  happened  to  bellow,  and  the 
Skraelingers  were  terrified,  and  fled  in  their  canoes. 
Gudrid,  Karlsefne's  wife,  lay  in  here  of  a  son,  who 
was  called  Snorro.  '*In  the  beginning  of  the  following 
winter,  the  Skraelingers  attacked  them.  They  were 
defeated  by  the  courage  of  Gudrid  (who  appears  to 
have  been  far  advanced  in  pregnancy  at  the  time  of 
this  attack);  but  lost  a  man,  and  were  so  d i spirit prl  by 
the  prospect  of  constant  hostilities  with  the  natives, 

M  3 


166  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  V 


PRELIM,  that  thev  resolved  to  return*  They  sailed  east,  and 
came  to  Straumiiord.  Karlsefne  then  took  one  of  the 
ships  to  look  for  Thorhall,  while  the  rest  remained 
behind.  They  proceeded  northwards  round  Kialar- 
ness,  and  afterwards  to  the  north-west,  the  land  being 
to  larboard  of  them,  and  covered  with  thick  forests. 
They  considered  the  hills  they  saw  at  Hope,  and 
these,  as  one  continuous  range.  They  spent  the  third 
winter  at  Straumiiord.  Karlsefne^s  son  was  now  three 
years  old.  When  they  sailed  from  Vinland  they  had 
southerly  winds,  and  came  to  Markland,  where  they 
met  five  Skraelingers,  and  took  two  boys,  whom  they 
taught  Norse,  and  who  told  them  their  people  had  no 
houses,  but  Hved  in  holes  and  caves :  that  they  had 
kings  ;  one  called  Avaldamon,  and  the  other  Yaldida. 
Biorne  Grimulfson  was  driven  into  the  Irish  Ocean, 
and  came  into  waters  so  infested  with  worms  that 
their  ship  was  in  a  sinking  state.  Some  of  the  crew 
were  saved  in  the  boat,  which  had  been  smeared  over 
with  seal- oil,  which  is  a  preventive  against  worms  in 
wood.  Karlsefne  continued  his  voyage  to  Greenland, 
and  arrived  at  Ericsfiord. 

During  the  same  summer.  XQ^^-  a  ship  from  Nor- 
way came  to  Greenland.  The  vessel  belonged  to  two 
brothers,  Helge  and  Finboge,  Avho  wintered  in  Green- 
land. Freydisa  (the  natural  daughter  of  Eric  Red, 
who  had  married  Thorward)  proposed  to  them  to  join 
in  an  expedition  to  Vinland,  each  party  to  have  thirty 
men,  and  to  divide  the  gain  equally.  They  agreed, 
and  set  out,  and  reached  Leif 's  booths,  where  they 
spent  the  winter;  but  Freydisa, who  had  taken  five  men 
more  with  her  than  the  agreement  allowed,  quarrelled 
with  the  brothers,  and  murdered  them  and  the  whole 
of  their  people,  and  returned  in  spring  (1013)  to 
Greenland. 

Karlsefne  went  to  Norway  with  his  Vinland  cargo 
next  summer,  and  it  was  considered  ^yery  valuable. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  167 

He  sold  even  a  mcce  of  wood  used  for  a  dortr^hayt  nr    prki;,\m- 


a  broomstick,  to  a  Bremen  merchant  for  half  a  mark    ^ 

"■ -■■'  '      iin~i.     I.  ,„.ii.«M  ■   i«f.i.i..-...-.jjwnii, m  iMi   , .  — . Chap.  V. 

^fjLQM  ;  foJ^  it  was  of  massur-Avood  of  Yiiiland.  He 
returned,  and  purchased  land  in  Iceland;  and  many 
peo^^le  of  distinction  are  descended  from  him  and  his 
son  Snorro,  ^vho_was_hQrli.JUL.£inlaI^^^^  After  his 
death  his  widow,  Gudrid,  went  to  Rome,  and  on  her 
return  lived  in  religious  seclusion  in  Iceland. 

The  above  is  an  abridgment  of  the  eight  chapters 
on  which  the  whole  accounts  of  Vinland  rest,  and 
which  are  given  at  length  in  the  Appendix ;  and  so 
much  fanciful  speculation  has  been  reared  upon  this 
foundation,  that  it  deserves  examination.  The  main 
facts — the  discovery  of  various  lands  to  the  south  and 
west  of  Greenland,  the  repeated  voyages  to  them,  and 
the  reasonable  motives  of  such  voyages — bear  all  the 
internal  evidences  of  simple  truth.  We  may  generally 
believe  in  the  truth  of  the  accounts  of  men's  actions, 
when  we  see  reasonable  and  sufficient  motives  for 
them  so  to  act.  Iceland,  although  it  had  wood  in 
those  days,  and  has  some  st^ll,  produced  only  a 
scrubby  small  brush^v^ood  of  birch  or  hazel,  not  fit  for 
ship -building,  nor  for  the  large  halls  which  it  ^\^as  the 
fashion  of  the  age  for  great  people  to  have  for  enter- 
taining and  lodging  their  followers  in ;  and  the  state 
of  society  made  it  necessary  for  safety  to  keep  large 
bodies  of  retainers  always  at  hand,  and  about  them. 
It  is  told  as  a  remarkable  thing  in  the  Landnamma 
Book,  or  History  of  the  Original  Settlers  in  Iceland 
(page  29.),  that  Avang  found  such  large  wood  Avhere 
he  settled,  that  he  built  a  long- ship  ;  and  in  the  Kristni 
Saga  it  is  mentioned  that  Hialte  Skeggeson  built  a 
ship  at  home,  so  large  that  he  sailed  in  it  to  Norway. 
In  general,  hoAvever,  they  had  to  buyjheir  sea-going 
vessels  in  Norway.  The  drift  wood  found  about  the 
shores  of  Iceland  in  great  abundance  to  a  late  period, 
and  perhaps  even  now,  would  be  too  much  shaken  and 

M  4 


168  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


DISSERT 
Chap.  V. 


PRELIM,  wormeaten  to  be  fit  for  ship-building,  even  if  it  were 
of  a  sufficient  size.  To  go  in  quest  of  the  wooded 
countries  to  the  south-west,  from  Avhence  drift  wood 
came  to  their  shores,  was  a  reasonable,  intelligible 
motive,  for  making  a  voyage  in  search  of  the  lands 
from  whence  it  came,  and  where  this  valuable  ma- 
terial could  be  got  for  nothing.  So  far  we  see  rea- 
sonable motives  followed  by  reasonable  and  perfectly 
credible  acts  and  results.  In  the  account,  however, 
of  the_details^upon  which  so  much  has  been  built  up 
by  modern  antiquaries,  we  find  no  such  consistency, 
credibility,  or  internal  evidence  of  truthfulness.  Leif 
and  his  successors,  Karlsefne  and  others,  arrive  in 
Vinland  in  spring  —  say  in  May,  June,  or  July.  In 
what  climate,  or  part  of  the  world,  are  grapes  to  be 
found  in  those  months  ?  They  can  hardly  tread  on 
Straum  Island  —  settled  by  our  modem  antiquaries  to 
be  Egg  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  Plymouth  Sound  in 
Massachusetts  —  for  the  eggs  of  eyder  ducks.  It 
was  consequently  early  in  spring,  before  birds  were 
hatched,  and  before  grapes  have  the  shape  of  fruit 
in  any  climate,  that  they  found  ripe  grapes  and  ears 
of  wheat !  Do  vines,  or  wheat,  or  corn  of  any  kind, 
grow  spontaneously  in  those  countries  ?  This  is  a 
question  by  no  means  satisfactorily  ascertained. 
Tyrker  the  German,  who  knew  so  well  grapes  and 
vines,  "  because  he  was  born  in  a  country  in  which 
these  are  not  scarce,"  comes  back  to  his  party  after  a 
short  absence,  rolling  his  eyes,  making  faces,  talking 
German,  and  half  drunk.  All  the  grapes  in  Germany, 
and  Vinland  to  boot,  would  not  make  a  man  drunk, 
without  their  juice  undergoing  the  vinous  ferment- 
ation. This  is  clearly  the  fiction  of  some  saga-maker, 
who  knew  no  more  of  wine  than  that  it  was  the  juice 
of  the  grape  ;  and  all  the  geographical  speculations 
upon  the  sites  and  localities  of  the  Vinland  of  the 
Northmen,  built  upon  the  natural  products  of  the 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  169 

land,  fall   to  the  ground.     The  eyder  duck,  on  our    PRE^m. 

side  of  the  world,  is  very  rarely  seen  in  lower  latitudes      

than  60°.    It  may  be  different  on  the  American  coast ; 
but  the  Skraehngers,  the  sallow-complexioned  people 
with  skin-canoes  mth  whom  they  bartered  cloth  and 
milk  for  sable  and  squirrel   or  grey  skins,  are,  to- 
gether with  their  articles  of  traffic,  of  northern  origin. 
The  red  race  of  Indians  could  never  have  been  called 
Skraelingers,  and  described  as  such, — viz.  with  broad 
cheeks,  and  sallow  complexions, — by  Northmen  who 
knew  the  SkraBlingers,  or  Esquimaux  race,  in  Green- 
land.    But  we  are  told  the  Esquimaux  race  extended 
once  much  farther  south,  beyond  Newfoundland  and 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  as  far  south  as  we  please 
to  have  them.     It  is  as  easy  to  tell  us  that  once  the 
juice  of  the  grape  would  intoxicate  without  the  vinous 
fermentation, — that  wheat  would  grow  without  being 
sown, — and  that  a  barn,  or  more  properly  a  kiln-barn, 
might  be  found  in  a  land  without  dwelling-houses. 
All  the  geographical  knowledge  that  can  be  drawn 
from  the  accounts  of  the  natural  products  of  Vinland 
in  these  eight  chapters,  points  clearly  to  the  Labrador 
coast,  or  Newfoundland,  or  some  places  north  of  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.    The  terror  of  the  Skraelingers 
at  the  bellowing  of  Karlsefne's  bull  points  rather  to 
an  island  people,  as  the  natives  of  Prince  Edward's 
Island,  or  of  Newfoundland  ;  for  a  continental  people 
in  that  part  of  America  could  not  be  strangers  to  the 
much  more  formidable  bisson,  or  musk  ox,  or  buffalo. 
The  piece  of  massur-wood  from  Vinland,  which  Karl- 
sefne  sold  to  a  Bremen  merchant  for  half  a  mark  of 
gold,  must  have  derived  its  value  either  from  its  in- 
trinsic worth  or  beauty  as  wood  or  dye-wood,  or  as  a 
stick  coming  from  a  distant  unknown  land.     In  the 
latter   case   the   kind  or  quality  of  the  wood,  and 
whether  it  grew  south  or  north,  were  circumstances 
of  no  consequence  to  the  buyer :    it  was  a  curiosity 


Chap.  V. 


170  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,  from  an  unknown  land.  In  the  former  case,  Karl- 
sefne  must  be  supposed  to  have  gone  to  Honduras  to 
cut  his  broomstick.  The  maple,  or  whatever  wood 
for  furniture  grows  more  to  the  north  in  America,  is 
not  more  beautiful  than  birch  wood  or  other  European 
wood.  If  it  had  been  logwood,  fustic,  mahogany, 
that  was  meant  by  massur-wood,  it  would  be  a  proof 
that  the  saga- writer  was  drawing  upon  his  own  ima- 
gination in  the  details  of  his  account  of  Karlsefne ;  for 
vines  and  wheat  growing  spontaneously,  mahogany 
trees  or  dye-woods,  and  Esquimaux  in  skin- canoes 
trading  with  sable  skins  and  grey  skins,  and  furs 
described  to  be  white  or  all  grey — "gravara  ok  salvali 
ok  allskonar  skinnavara,''  and  "  algra  skinn  "  —  never 
met  in  one  locality :  for  the  former  are  products  of 
a  very  southern  latitude,  and  the  people  and  ani- 
mals described  belong  to  a  northern  climate.  The 
account  of  the  time  from  land  to  land  in  the  voyages 
of  Biorne,  Leif,  or  Karlsefne,  leads  to  no  satisfactory 
result  as  to  the  land  they  came  to ;  because  we  neither 
know  their  rate  of  sailing  in  a  day,  nor  whether  by  a 
day's  sailing  they  meant  sailing  day  and  night,  or 
that  they  took  down  and  stowed  their  great  square- 
sail  at  night,  and  lay-to  with  a  little  try-sail  aft  tiU 
daylight,  as  similarly  rigged  vessels  on  the  fishing 
banks  do  at  the  present  day.  The  lying-to  all  night, 
as  they  were  in  an  unknown  sea,  was  the  better  sea- 
manship, and  we  may  suppose  it  was  their  way  of 
sailing.  In  their  ordinary  voyages  they  appear  always 
to  have  put  up  their  tent-cloths  at  night,  brought 
their  vessel  to  the  land  or  to  an  anchor,  and  to  have 
gone  to  rest,  leaving  only  a  watch  on  deck.  It  is 
usually  mentioned  in  the  saga  when  they  sail  night 
and  day,  as  a  special  circumstance.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear probable  they  Avould  run  with  all  sail  in  the 
night  through  an  unknown  sea;  and  if  they  took  down 
sail  at  night,  and  lay-to  in  the  gulf  stream,  all  con- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


171 


jecture  founded  on  the  number  of  days'  sailing  from 
Hellaland  to  Markland,  or  from  Markland  to  Vin- 
land,  is  quite  arbitrary,  and  without  guide.  The  de- 
scription of  the  land  is  equally  unsatisfactory  as  a 
means  of  discovering  the  localities  in  Vinland  they 
visited,  without  more  precise  data.  A  country  of 
stony  soil,  with  little  vegetation  among  the  slaty 
fragments  that  cover  it,  applies  to  all  the  country 
from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Newfoundland ;  and  Hellaland, 
so  called  from  this  circumstance,  is  a  name  that  Avould 
suit  any  part  of  Labrador  as  well  as  Newfoundland. 
Markland,  so  called  because  low  or  level,  and  covered 
with  thick  forests,  as  a  description  may  be  applied  to 
any  part  of  America  as  well  as  to  Nova  Scotia.  An 
island  with  a  sound  between  it  and  the  main,  or  a  low 
shore  with  remarkably  white  sand  cliffs  and  shallow 
water,  a  fiord  or  inlet  of  the  sea,  a  river  running  out 
of  a  lake,  a  bay  between  two  headlands,  one  of  them 
of  a  conspicuous  figure,  are  good  landmarks  for 
identifying  a  country  of  which  the  position  is  known, 
but  are  good  for  nothing  as  data  for  fixing  that  po- 
sition itself;  because  these  are  features  common  to  all 
sea  coasts,  and,  on  a  small  or  great  scale,  to  be  found 
within  every  hundred  miles  of  a  run  along  the  sea- 
board of  a  country.  It  is  evident  from  the  personal 
adventures  ascribed  by  the  saga-maker  to  the  person- 
ages, that  the  details  are  imaginary,  and  only  the  ge- 
neral outline  true.  The  revival  of  Thorstein  Ericson's 
body,  and  its  prophesying  what  was  to  befal  Gudrid 
in  her  lifetime,  are  within  the  ordinary  belief  of  those 
times,  and  therefore  do  not  lessen  the  confidence  in 
other  circumstances  related;  nor  the  appearance  to 
her  alone  of  another  Gudrid,  who  spoke  Norse  to  her 
in  Vinland,  and  whom  nobody  else  saw.  But  the 
adventures  of  Freydisa,  her  murder  of  the  two  bro- 
thers, thirty  men,  and  the  women,  is  an  improbable, 
not  to  say  an  impossible  circumstance ;  as  her  thirty- 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  V. 


172  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

ms^sS'.  fi^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  motive  for  such  a  butchery  of  their 
^- —  comrades,  in  a  country  in  which  they  needed  all  their 
strength  for  their  safety,  and  for  the  objects  of  their 
voyage.  All  the  details  seem  merely  the  filling  up 
of  imagination,  to  make  a  story  of  a  main  fact,  the 
discovery  of  Yinland  by  certain  personages,  whose 
names,  and  the  fact  of  their  discovering  unknown 
lands  south-west  of  Greenland,  are  alone  to  be 
depended  upon. 

But^  twof acts  are  stated  by  our  modern  antiquaries, 
which  are  held  to  be  quite  conclusive  as  to  the  locality 
in  America  discovered  by  the  Icelanders.  One  is,  that 
in  the  details  of  Leif 's  voyage  and  residence  in  Yin- 
land^  it  is  stated  that  on  the  shortest  day  the  sun  was 
above  the  horizon  from  half-past  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  half-past  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  or 
nine  hours,  which  gives  the  latitude  of  the  place  41° 
24'  10'^,  and  which  brings  it  to  between  Seaconnet 
Point  in  41°  26',  and  Judith  Point  in  4V  23',  aud 
which  two  points  form  the  entrance  into  Mount  Hope 
Bay;  which  corresponds,  even  to  the  name  Hop  or 
Hope, jvvith_ tie. description  of  a  river,  now  called  the 
Taunton,  running  from  a  lake  into  the  sea,  and  with 
all  the  otlier  landmarks  or  accounts  of  the  appearance 
of  the  coast  given  in  the  saga.  The  other  fact,  not 
less  striking,  is,  that  in  this  very  neighbourhood, — viz. 
at  Assonet  Point,  on  the  shore  of  the  river  Taunton^ 
in  latitude  41°  44',  near  the  town  of  Berkley  in  the 
district  of  Massachusetts,  —  a  stone  covered  with 
Runic  inscriptions  is  still  to  be  seen,  and  is  known  by 
the  name  of  the  D  eight  on  Writing  (written)  Ei^ckj  and 
was  an  object  of  curiosity  to  the  early  English  settlers 
as  far  back  as  1680.  These  two  happy  coincidences 
are  so  happy — so  like  finding  a  box,  and,  800  years 
afterwards,  finding  the  key  that  of  all  the  keys  in  the 
world  can  alone  open  it — that  people  almost  doubt, 
at  the  first  hearing  of  it,  whether  the  news  be  not  too 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  173 

good  to  be  true.     The  first  question  that  arises  to    J^l^;^^- 
the  doubtins;  reader  is,  how,  in  Leif  Ericson's  time, —    ^ — ^, 
that  is,  about  the  year  1000,  when  Christianity  was 
scarcely  introduced,  and  church  festivals,  church  time, 
and   the  knowledge  and  prayers  of  churchmen  un- 
known,—  did  the  Icelanders  divide  time?     The  whole 
circle  of  the  horizon  appears  to  have  been  divided  by 
them  into  four  quarters,  each  subdivided  into  two, 
making  eight  divisions,  or  attir  (from  which  our  old 
word  airths,  applied  to  the  winds,  seems  derived) ;  and 
these  eight  watches,  each  of  three  of  our  hours,  made 
up  the  day,  which  we  divide  into  24  parts.     It  was 
not  until  120  years  after  Leif 's  voyage,  viz.  in  1123, 
that  Bishop  Thorlak  established  in  Iceland  a  code  of 
church  regulations  or  laws,  by  which  time  was  more 
minutely  ascertained  for  church  prayers  and  observ- 
ances. For  all  secular  business,  among  a  seafaring  and 
labouring  population,  the  division  of  time  into  eight 
watches  was  sufficiently  minute  for  all  their  practical 
purposes.    Now  the  saga  says,  "  Sol  havdi  thar  Eyktar- 
stad  ok  Dagmalastad  um  skamdegi ; "  which  clearly 
means  that,  on  the  shortest  day,  they  had  the  sun  in  the 
watches  called  the  Dagmalastad  and  the  Eyktarstad  ; 
that  the  sun  rose  in  the  former,  and  set  in  the  latter, 
and  not  as  in  Iceland,  where  the  rising  and  setting  were, 
on  the  shortest  day,   included  in  one  watch.     The 
Dagmalastad  was  the  watch  immediately  before  the 
mid-day  watch  (Middegi),  and  the  Eyktarstad  that 
immediately  after.     Now  if  we  reckon  from  noon,  the 
middle  of  the  mid- day  watch,  it  would  begin  at  half- 
past  ten  o'clock  of  our  time,  and  end  at  half-past  one 
o^clock  ;  Dagmalastad  would  begin  at  half-past  seven, 
and  end  at  half-past  ten;  and  Eyktarstad  begin  at 
half-past  one,  and  end  at  half- past  four  in  the  after- 
noon.     Now  if  the  sun  rose  any  time   within  the 
Dagmalastad,  and  set  any  time  within  the  Eyktarstad 
Avatch,  —  that  is  to  say,  any  time  between  half-past 


174 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


Chap.  V. 


PRELIM,    seven  and  half-past  ten  for  its  rising,  and  any  time 
between  half-past  one  and  half-past  four  of  our  time 
for  its  setting/ — it  would  answer  all  the  conditions  of 
the  text  of  the  saga,  which  merely  says  they  had  the 
sun  in  these  watches,  not  during  the  whole  of  these 
watches  ;   and  the  precision  of  ideas  and  expression 
which  characterises  the  Icelanders  would  undoubtedly 
have  expressed,  if  that  had  been  the  meaning,  that 
the  sun  rose  at  the  beginning  of  Dagmalastad,  and  set 
at  the  end  of  Eyktarstad.      TorfaBus,   certainly  not 
inferior  in  j  udgment  and  knowledge  to  any  antiquary 
of  our  times,  and  who,  as  a  contemporary  and  friend, 
had  on  every  doubtful   point   the  opinion  of   Arne 
Magnaeus,  the  first  Icelandic  antiquary  who  has  ever 
appeared,  makes  out,  from  the  same  text,  that  the  sun 
may  be  considered  to  have  been  above  the  horizon 
from  the  middle  of  Dagmalastad  to  the  middle  of  Eyk- 
tarstadt, — that  is,  for  about  six  hours, — which  would 
correspond  to  a  latitude  of  49°  instead  of  41°;  and 
he,  and  Arne  Magnaeus  we  may  presume  with  him, 
bring  Vinland  to  some  place  in  Newfoundland,  or  in 
the  Saint  Lawrence,  which  certainly  would  agree  better 
with  the  description  of  the  people  and  products,  ex- 
cepting the  ready-made  wine,  the  spontaneous  wheat, 
and  the  fine  wood,  than  Taunton  river  in  Massachusetts. 
With  regard  to  the  Deighton  Written   Rock,  upon 
which  so  much  has  been  built  in  vast  and  expensive 
publications,  such  as  the  "  Antiquitates  Americanae  " 
(Hafniae,  1837),  and  other  works,  the  following  ob- 
servations may  lead  to  a  true  estimate  of  its  historical 
value.     The  rock  or  stone  is  a  boulder  or  transported 
mass,  not  a  stone  belonging  to  the  ground  rock  of  the 
country.     It  is  about  11^  feet  long  by  5^  feet  high, 
running  up  to  an  edge,  and  the  surface,  or  side  on 
which  the  Runic  inscription  is  found,  sloping  at  an 
angle  of  60°  from  its  base.     It  is  one  of  that  class  of 
detached  masses  of  primary  rock  scattered  over  the 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


175 


whole  northern  hemisphere  of  our  globe — the  evi- 
dences of  some  vast  convulsion  beyond  human  know- 
ledge or  conjecture.  Whoever  has  examined  this  class 
of  stones  must  have  observed  that  it  is  almost  a  cha- 
racteristic, distinguishing  them  from  fixed  ground  rock 
of  similar  formation,  that  they  are  more  interspersed 
with  black  or  greenish  veins  or  marks  of  a  different 
substance  from  the  component  parts  of  the  rock,  and, 
in  short,  with  lines  which  often  assume  the  appearance 
of  sea- weed  or  other  fossil  plant,  enclosed  in  the  cry- 
stallised matrix  of  the  stone,  but  which  are  in  reality 
small  veins,  or  rather  lines  of  chlorite.  The  Runic 
inscription  at  Runamoe,  in  Bleking  in  Sweden,  which, 
from  the  days  of  Saxo  Grammaticus  to  the  present 
times,  was  considered  to  be  an  inscription  of  real  but 
unintelligible  letters  on  the  ground  rock,  and  which 
antiquaries  but  a  few  years  ago  supposed  they  had 
deciphered,  and  actually  published  their  explanation 
of  it,  is  now  discovered,  and  admitted,  to  be  nothing 
but  veins  of  one  substance  interspersed  in  another. 
Chemistry  settled  the  historical  value  of  this  Runic 
inscription.  The  Deighton  Written  Rock  would  per- 
haps be  the  better  of  a  certificate  from  the  mineral- 
ogist, as  well  as  the  antiquary.  Supposing  it  beyond 
all  doubt  a  stone  with  artificial  characters,  letters,  or 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  V, 


No.  1. 


176 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


Chav.  V. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  177 

figures  inscribed  upon  it,  the  first  question  that  occurs  P^|,y^ 
to  every  inquirer  must  be,  what  is  there  to  prove  that 
these  marks  are  the  work  of  the  Northmen,  and  not 
of  the  natives,  or  of  the  first  European  settlers  about 
the  year  1620  ?  The  stone,  of  which  No.  1.  is  a  de- 
lineation (No.  2.  is  a  copy  of  the  marks  or  inscription 
in  1790,  and  No.  3.  in  1830),  bears  nothing  to  show  by 
whom,  or  when,  the  marks  in  question  were  scratched 
upon  it.  The  native  tribes  of  America,  the  Hottentots, 
even  the  natives  of  Australia,  according  to  Captain 
Gray's  narrative  of  his  travels,  have  a  propensity  to 
delineate  rude  figures  and  marks  upon  the  sides  of 
caves  and  remarkable  rocks,  to  indicate  that  they  have 
been  there,  and  even  to  show  their  tribe,  numbers, 
and  the  direction  they  have  taken.  This  stone  is,  by 
the  description,  quite  tempting  to  indulge  the  propen- 
sity common  to  all  men,  savage  or  civilised,  to  leave 
some  mark  after  them  of  their  having  existed;  for  it 
is  said  to  be  conspicuous  from  its  position,  flat  sur- 
face, and  different  texture  from  the  common  rock  of 
the  country  around.*     It  is  evident,  on  referring  to 

*  ''  The  Deighton  stone  is  a  fine-grained  greywakke,  and  the  rock  of 
the  neighbourhood  a  large  conglomerate.  It  is  situated  6^  miles  south 
of  Taunton,  on  the  Taunton  river,  a  few  feet  from  the  shore,  and  is 
covered  with  water  at  flood  tide,  on  the  west  side  of  Assonet  Point,  in 
the  town  of  Berkley,  county  of  Bristol,  and  state  of  Massachusetts,  and 
in  a  parish  or  district  called  Deighton.  The  marks  are  described  as 
'  showing  no  method  in  the  arrangement  of  them.'  The  lines  are  from 
half  an  inch  to  an  inch  in  width,  and  in  depth  sometimes  one-third  of 
an  inch,  though  in  general  very  superficial.  They  were,  inferring  from 
the  rounded  elevations  and  intervening  depressions,  pecked  in  upon  the 
rock,  and  not  chiselled  or  smoothly  cutout."  —  (^Communication  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  to  the  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries 
at  Copenhagen,  1830.)  Other  rocks,  similarly  marked  with  rude  hiero- 
glyphics, or  figures  of  animals,  are  found  in  various  parts  of  the  interior 
of  America,  far  from  the  coast,  —  as  on  the  Alleghany  river,  the  Con- 
necticut river,  about  Lake  Erie,  on  Cumberland  river,  about  Rock- 
castle Creek,  —  and  similar,  as  sculptured  work,  to  the  Deighton  stone. 
Are  these  too  memorials  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne,  left  in  Vinland  by  his 
party  of  woodcutters  }  or  are  they  the  rude  memorials  of  the  wandering 
Indians,  left,  if  they  have  a  meaning,  to  show  those  of  their  own  tribe 
who  may  follow  that  they  have  been  on  the  spot  some  time  before  ? 

VOL.  I.  N 


Chap.  V. 


178  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

ms^ERT  ^^'  ^'  ^^^  ^^'  ^•'  *^^^  there  is  no  sequence  of  letters, 
either  Runic  or  Roman,  upon  the  Deighton  Written 
Rock,  but  only  detached  unconnected  marks,  belonging 
to  any  people  or  period  one  may  please  to  fancy. 
What  is  there  to  prove  that  these  are  not  the  scratches 
of  some  idle  sailor  boy,  or  of  some  master  Deighton 
of  the  first  settlers  in  1620  ?  Every  Runic  inscrip- 
tion given  by  Olaus  Wormius,  in  his  "  Literatura 
Runica,"  is  in  regular  columns  of  letters  from  right 
to  left,  or  from  top  to  bottom,  or  going  round  the  stone ; 
but  still  in  regular  rows,  letter  after  letter.  Here 
all  the  scratches  are  detached  marks,  such  as  a  child 
would  make  on  the  smooth  side  of  a  stone,  mthout 
meaning.  The  only  semblance  to  letters  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  stone,  in  which  antiquaries  discover  the 
name  of  Thorfinn.— -viz.  Thorfinn Knrl sefne^  theleader 
of  the  expedition.  In  the  older  copy  (No.  2.  of  the 
inscription)  we  see  a  lozenge-shaped  mark,  a  Roman 
letter  R,  a  stroke,  and  a  triangular  mark.  In  the 
later  copy  of  1830  (No.  3.),  the  lozenge  has  got  a  tail 
to  it,  and  the  Roman  letters  RFIN  are  distinct.  The 
first  copy  was  taken  in  1790,  by  Dr.  Baylie  and  Mr. 
Godwin  ;  the  latter  in  1830,  by  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society.  Both  copies  coincide ;  except  that 
the  figure  of  a  cock,  and  of  some  animal  apparently, 
and  some  unintelligible  marks  delineated  in  the  older, 
have  in  the  course  of  forty  years  become  obUterated, 
and  are  not  given  in  the  later  copy.  But  by  some 
strange  process,  although  it  is  one  not  at  all  uncommon 
in  stones  that  have  attracted  the  antiquary's  notice,  the 
thing  sought  for — the  letters  of  the  word  Thorfinn 
— has  in  the  course  of  the  forty  years  gained  won- 
derfully in  distinctness,  instead  of  becoming  obliter- 
ated or  less  legible.  Let  any  one  look  at  the  upper 
copy  (No.  2.),  and  make  out,  if  he  can,  any  thing 
approaching  to  the  word  Thorfinn,  except  a  lozenge 
and  R,  such  as  one  may  see  on  a  box  or  package  in 


Chap.  V. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  179 

a  ship's  cargo;  but  let  him  look  at  No.  3. — the  copy  ^fj^jj^; 
taken  since  the  Icelandic  origin  of  the  inscription  was 
broached, — and  there  to  be  sure  he  will  see  without 
spectacles  a  lozenge  mth  a  tail,  and  the  Roman  letters 
FINZ,  making  Thorfinz.  In  the  tables  of  the  various 
forms  of  Eunic  letters  given  by  Wormius,  in  his 
"  Literatura  Runica,"  there  is  no  such  lozenge-shaped 
letter  to  express  Th  or  Tho ;  but  as  in  many  districts 
Runic  letters  appear  to  have  had  different  shapes 
from  those  used  in  other  parts,  this  circumstance  is  of 
little  importance.  The  letter  R  may  have  been  com- 
mon to  both  alphabets,  the  Roman  and  Runic  :  the 
letters  FIN  are  decidedly  Roman ;  so  that  in  this 
Runic  inscription  there  is  but  one  letter  that  may 
possibly  be  Runic,  if  it  be  a  letter  at  all,  and  the 
rest  are  all  Roman  characters.  In  both  copies,  just 
over  the  lozenge  letter,  is  a  mark,  also  in  Roman  cha- 
racters, which  may  be  N  A,  or  MA;  the  letter  A  being 
formed  by  the  last  branch  of  the  M.  Either  will  do ; 
because,  if  it  be  NA,  it  may  be  part  of  the  word 
Landnam ;  and  if  it  be  M  A,  it  will  surely  be  part  of 
the  word  Madr  :  and  Landnammadr  signifies  the  first 
settler  of  a  country, — the  origines  gentis,  —  and  is 
so  used  to  denote  the  original  settlers  in  Iceland,  of 
whom  the  Landnamma  Saga  treats.  Close  to  this 
NA,  in  both  copies,  are  marks  of  three  tens  and  a 
one,  in  Roman  numerals,  viz.  XXXL;  and  before  the 
first  is  something  like  a  Greek  gamma,  but  which  may 
possibly  be  intended  for  a  Roman  C.  Now  if  this 
Roman  C  be  intended  for  a  hundred,  it  would  not  be 
for  a  Roman  hundred  or  centum  of  five  score,  but  a 
long  hundred  of  six  score,  by  which  the  Icelanders 
always  counted  ;  and  CXXXI.  would  in  reality  mean 
151,  not  131.  Now,  Karlsefne  had  lost  nine  of  his 
original  party,  who  had  gone  northwards  under 
Thorhall;  and  this  number  9  added  to  the  151  so 
clearly  and  satisfactorily  made  out  on  the  stone,  just 

N  2 


180  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,    makes  up  the  160  men,  the  ori2:inal  number  of  Land- 

DISSERT.  -'•  '  o 

nammen  of  Yinland  who  embarked  with  Karlsefne. 

It  would  be  puerile  to  dwell  on  such  puerilities.  To 
believe  that  Thorfinn  Karlsefne,  or  any  of  his  party, 
was  acquainted  not  only  with  the  Runic  and  Eoman 
letters,  but  with  the  Roman  numerals,  yet  without 
knowing  the  use  of  those  numerals,  and  the  number 
of  units  they  express ;  and  should  leave  a  Runic  in- 
scription, as  it  is  called,  without  a  Runic  letter  in  it, 
and  so  rude  as  to  show — if  the  marks  are  letters  at 
all,  and  not  merely  scratches,  marks,  or  initials,  made 
at  various  times  by  various  hands — a  complete  igno- 
rance of  the  collocation  of  letters  in  a  row  so  as  to 
form  words,  and  a  complete  ignorance  of  the  value 
of  the  Roman  numerals  he  was  using, — would  require 
the  antiquarian  credulity  of  a  Jonathan  Oldbuck. 

The  northern  antiquaries  are  misled  in  their  specu- 
lations about  Yinland  by  the  singular  case  of  the 
ancient  Greenland  colony.  By  the  rarest  coincidence 
of  new  and  old  colonisation,  a  kind  of  double  evidence 
has  come  out  to  prove  the  veracity  of  the  saga  accounts 
of  that  old  Icelandic  colony.  First  is  the  documentary 
evidence  of  the  saga,  bearing  no  inconsistency  or  inter- 
nal evidence  of  deviation  from  truth,  and  supported  by 
collateral  documentary  evidence^  from  Adam  of  Bremen 
and  other  writers  of  the  11th  and  12th  centuries  in- 
cidentally mentioning  Greenland  and  its  bishops,  and 
which  is  evidence  precisely  similar  in  kind  to  the 
documentary  evidence  relative  to  Vinland.  ^But  a 
second  mass  and  kind  of  evidence  substantiating  the 
first  has  come  out  in  our  times^  by  the  discovery  in 
Greenland  of  remains  of  buildings,  churches,  and  of 
inscriptions  and  other  material  proofs,  corroborating 
the  documentary  proofs  of  the  existence  and  state  of 
this  ancient  colony  in  Greenland  given  in  the  sagas. 
Our  modern  antiquaries  want  to  substantiate  the 
documentary  evidence  of  the  saga  relative  to  Yinland 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  181 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  V. 


by  a  similar  kind  of  material  evidence  to  be  discovered    JPRJLm 
in  America,  without  considering  that  the  cases  are 
totally  distinct  and  different.  "^Greenland  was_a_cQkmy 
with  communications,   trade^  civil  and._e££lfisiastical 
establishments,  and  a  considci'iiljlc  |)(j|)uIation^_f<Qr  300 
years  at  least  before  it  was  lost  sight  of.     Vinland 
was  only  visited  by  flying  parties  of  wood-cutters, 
remainiiiii;   at  the  utmost  two  or  three  winters,  but 
never  settling  there  permanently  as  colonists,  nor  as 
far  as  can  be  seen  from  the  sagas,  with  any  intention  of 
settling.     No  division  and  occupation  of  the  land,  no 
agricultural  preparations  are  mentioned.     Cattle  they 
would  have  taken  for  milk,  or  food  probably,  at  any 
rate,  as  salt  to  preserve  meat  must  have  been  scarce 
in  Greenland,  where  it  could  only  be  obtained  by  eva- 
porating sea-water.     Cattle  taken  with  them,  if  the 
circumstance  be  true,  are  the  only  indication  of  any 
intention  to  settle  ;  and  a  settlement  or  colony  was 
not  established.     Three  winters  are  the  longest  period 
any  of  these  wood-cutting  parties  staid  in  Yinland. 
To  expect  here,  as  in  Greenland,  material  proofs  to 
corroborate  the  documentary  proofs,  is  weakening  the 
latter  by  linking  them  to  a  sort  of  evidence  which, 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  — the  temporary  visits 
of  a  ship's  crew,  —  cannot  exist  in  Yinland,  and,  as  in 
the  case  of  Greenland,  come  in  to  support  them.     It 
would  be  quite  as  judicious  and  consistent  with  sound 
principle  of  investigation  to  go  to  New  Zealand,  or 
the  Sandwich  Isles,  to  search  for  material  proofs  (old 
shoes,  cocked  hats,  or  pen-knives)  of  Captain  Cook's 
having  visited  those  places,  and  to  link  the  docu- 
mentary proofs  of  his  discoveries  to  the  authenticity 
of  the  material  proofs — of  the  old  shoes,  cocked  hats, 
and  pen-knives — left  by  him  on  those  shores.    This  is 
precisely  the  kind  of  investigation  and  reasoning,  with 
regard  to  the  discovery  of  Vinland  by  the  Northmen, 
which  antiquaries  are  pursuing ;    and  to  be  sure  it 

N  3 


Chap.  V. 


182  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

ms^mrr  ^^^^  ^^^^  them  into  laughable  discoveries — quite  as 
ridiculous  as  that  of  the  Runic  inscription  on  the 
Deighton  Writing  Stone,  or  as  Oldbuck's  Roman  Prae- 
torium  on  the  Kaim  of  Kinprunes.  Here  is  another 
sj)ecimen  of  the  development  of  the  imaginative  fa- 
culty among  antiquaries. 

In  the  town  of  Newport,  near  to  the  south  end  of 
Rhode  Island,  stands  the  circular  stone-work  of  an  old 
windmill,  of  about  18  feet  in  diameter  mthin  walls, 
and  raised  upon  eight  pillars  of  about  7  feet  high  and 
5  to  6  feet  apart,  arched  over  so  as  to  admit  carts  to 
come  under  the  floor  of  the  mill,  and  the  corn-sacks  to 
be  hoisted  up  or  lowered  down  through  a  hatch  in  the 
wooden  floor  above.  This  is  the  ordinary  plan  in 
large  well-arranged  windmills,  as  it  takes  the  horses 
and  carts  out  of  the  way  of  the  mngs  of  the  mill,  and 
of  the  lever  on  the  ground  by  which  the  moveable 
wooden  superstructure  or  head  of  the  mill  was  for- 
merly turned  to  the  wind.  The  pillars  supported  the 
beams  of  the  floor ;  and  windows  and  a  fireplace,  cor- 
responding to  the  floor  or  platform  of  the  mill,  are  in 
the  wall,  which  is  about  24  feet  high,  built  of  rough 
stone  very  substantially,  and  with  lime-mortar,  and 
has  been  harled  or  roughcast  mth  lime.  The  situ- 
ation is  at  the  summit,  or  nearly  so,  of  the  principal 
eminence  in  the  neighbourhood,  open  to  the  sea 
breezes,  and  with  no  out-walls  or  any  thing  near  it 
to  intercept  the  wind.  It  is  universally  called  by  tlie 
inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood  "  the  old  stone  mill." 
These  are  pretty  good  proofs  that  the  building  has 
been  a  mill ;  but  there  is  also  documentary  proof  of 
it.  Rhode  Island  was  first  settled  by  the  English  in 
1636,  and  two  years  afterwards  (1638)  Newport  and 
the  south  end  were  occupied.  In  1678,  that  is  forty 
years  afterwards,  Benedict  Arnold,  who  appears  to 
have  been  governor  of  the  settlement  at  one  time,  in 
his  last  will  and  testament  calls  this  very  building  his 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  18 


9 


DISSERT. 
Chap.  V. 


stone  mill.  This  is  not  all.  One  of  the  first  settlers,  l^^];^]; 
a  Mr.  Peter  Easton,  had  the  laudable  custom  of  mark- 
ing in  his  pocket-book  whatever  notable  event  oc- 
curred in  his  township;  and  under  the  year  1663  he 
makes  the  memorandum,  "  This  year  we  built  the  first 
windmill."  Now  we  have  here,  first,  the  documentary 
evidence  of  Governor  Arnold's  will,  calling  it,  in  1678, 
his  stone  mill,  and  bequeathing  it  as  such;  and  of 
Mr.  Peter  Easton's  pocket-book,  giving  posterity  the 
information  that  ^'  the  first  windmill  in  the  township 
was  built  in  1663 ;"  and  as  they  could  scarcely  have 
required  two  mills  at  once  if  they  had  none  before, 
we  may  fairly  presume  that  the  mill  built  in  16'63 
was  that  bequeathed  in  1678.  And,  secondly,  we  have 
the  material  proof  of  the  building,  with  its  modern 
walls,  built  with  mortar  of  lime  and  sand,  and  harled, 
and  with  a  chimney-place,  windows,  and  beam  sup- 
ports for  a  mill  platform  or  floor,  being  altogether  fit 
for  and  on  the  plan  of  a  mill,  and  of  nothing  else, 
and  its  situation  also  being  adapted  for  that  purpose ; 
and  the  only  name  given  to  it  by  the  neighbouring 
inhabitants  being  "  the  old  stone  mill."  Don  Quixote 
himself  could  not  have  resisted  such  evidence  of  this 
having  been  a  windmill.  But  those  sly  rogues  of 
Americans  dearly  love  a  quiet  hoax.  With  all  gravity 
they  address  a  solemn  communication  to  the  Eoyal 
Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  at  Copenhagen,  re- 
specting these  interesting  remains  of  "  a  structure 
bearing  an  antique  appearance"  — ''  a  building  pos- 
sibly of  the  ante-Columbian  times  " — "  a  relic,  it  may 
be,  of  the  Northmen,  the  first  discoverers  of  Yinland ! " 
After  describing  the  situation  of  the  mill,  they  go  on 
to  say,  that  this  ''dilapidated  structure"  has  long 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  numerous  strangers  who 
come  in  the  fine  season,  from  all  parts  of  the  Union, 
to  enjoy  the  sea-bathing  and  pure  air  of  Newport, 
and  they  often  question  the  inhabitants  concerning  its 

N  4 


Chap.  V. 


184  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PRELIM,  origin ;  but  the  only  answer  they  receive  is,  that  it 
has  always  been  known  by  the  name  of  "  the  old  stone 
mill."  It  has  excited  the  most  lively  interest  among 
the  learned  in  those  parts,  and  many  conjectures  have 
been  hazarded  about  its  origin  and  object;  but  these, 
say  the  wags,  with  great  solemnity  of  phrase,  "  are 
shrouded  with  mystery ; "  and  all  that  can  be  learned 
from  the  inhabitants  is,  that  as  long  as  people  can 
remember  it  has  been  called  ^'  the  old  stone  mill/' 
But  whether  this  structure  could  have  been  built  for 
a  mill,  although  no  doubt  it  is  so  well  adapted  for  a 
mill  that  it  may  have  been  used  for  such  purpose  at 
some  period,  is  matter  of  grave  doubt  to  many ;  because 
no  similar  building,  of  old  or  new  date,  for  any  pur- 
pose, exists  in  the  neighbourhood,  or  in  all  the  coun- 
try. They  send,  along  with  their  communication 
concerning  this  interesting  structure  of  the  original 
Scandinavian  discoverers  of  Yinland  in  the  11th  cen- 
tury, drawings  of  the  exterior  and  interior,  a  ground 
plan  and  an  elevation  of  the  old  stone  mill ;  all  which 
they  submit  to  the  consideration  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Northern  Antiquaries  at  Copenhagen.  It  must  be 
allowed  that  these  Rhode  Island  wags  have  played  off 
their  joke  with  admirable  dexterity.  They  conceal 
nothing  that  fixes  the  building  to  have  been  beyond 
all  doubt  a  mill ;  neither  the  name  it  has  always  gone 
by, — nor  its  windmill  plan  and  site, — nor  its  modern 
walls  built  with  lime  and  sand,  and  roughcast,  —  nor 
General  Arnold's  will  calling  it  his  stone  mill,  —  nor 
Mr.  Peter  Easton's  memorandum  of  the  year  in  which 
it  was  built ;  but  they  cunningly  keep  all  these  circum- 
stances in  the  background,  and  bring  to  the  front  "  the 
dilapidated  structure,"  —  "  the  wonder  of  strangers 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,"  —  "  the  structure 
bearing  an  antique  appearance,"  —  its  origin  and  use 
"  shrouded  with  mystery,"  —  ''  but  possibly  ante- 
Columbian,"  —  "a  remain,  possibly,   of  the   Scandi- 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


185 


navian  discoverers  of  Yinland  in  the  11th  century." 
The  bait  took ;  and  no  doubt  these  comical  fellows  at 
Newport  are  chuckling  in  their  club-room  at  seeing 
their  ''  old  stone  mill"  figuring  in  the  Annals  of  the 
Northern  Antiquarian  Society,  with  arches  and  pillars 
like  a  Grecian  temple.  It  is  only  when  one  comes, 
compass  in  hand,  to  a  scale  of  feet  and  inches,  that 
one  finds  this  magnificent  structure,  with  pillars  and 
arches,  and  of  which  an  exterior  and  interior  view  is 
given  in  the  Annals  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  of 
Copenhagen,  is  in  reality  the  bottom  of  a  mill  of  the 
very  ordinary  size  of  18  feet  within  walls,  standing 
on  pillars  6  or  7  feet  high  and  5  or  6  feet  apart,  and 
arched  over,  —  like  to  and  on  the  scale  of  the  pillars 
and  arches  of  a  cart- shed,  or  a  horse-course  of  a 
thrashing-mill,  instead  of  a  structure,  as  the  plates, 
of  which  no  less  than  three  are  given,  would  lead  you 
to  believe,  on  the  plan  of  the  Coliseum,  and  of  the 
size  of  the  Temple  of  Vesta.  This  is  very  amusing  ; 
but  it  is  not  quite  so  amusing  to  have  to  pay  heavy 
prices  for  magnificent  books,  got  up  in  two  or  three 
languages,  superb  in  size,  paper,  and  type,  decorated 
with  fac-simile  specimens  of  the  writing  of  illuminated 
beautifully  executed  saga  manuscripts,  illustrated  with 
splendid  copper-plates,  and  published  in  the  name  and 
under  the  auspices  of  a  great  and  learned  antiquarian 
society ;  and  to  find  you  have  been  paying  gold  for 
such  oldwifery  as  this  Deighton  writing  rock  and 
Newport  old  stone  mill.  It  would,  in  fact,  be  difficult 
to  point  out  any  fact  or  observation  of  value  relative 
to  the  discovery  of  Yinland  which  has  not  been 
brought  to  light  and  weighed  by  Torfaeus,  in  1707,  in 
his  little  tract  on  Yinland.  Torfasus  was  an  antiqustry 
of  great  judgment.  He  came  first  into  the  field,  and 
seized  upon  the  only  fact  with  respect  to  the  discovery 
of  Yinland  that  there  was  to  seize  upon  —  the  docu- 
mentary proof,  from  a  manuscript  of  fixed  date,  of  a 


PRELIM. 
DISSERT. 

Chap.  V. 


186  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


DISSERT, 
Chap.  V. 


PRELIM,    discovery  of  Yinland,  recorded  in  writino^  a  hundred 

DISSKRT.  J  ^  O 

years  before  Columbus's  first  voyage ;  and  that  record 
known  to  Columbus,  or  Columbus  in  a  situation  to 
know  of  it,  a  few  years  before  he  undertook  that 
voyage.  Torfa3us  left  nothing  behind  to  glean  with 
respect  to  Yinland  of  any  value  in  the  question  of  the 
discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen. 

The  legend  of  Gunleif  Gunlaugsson,  like  this  saga 
of  Karlsefne,  gives  a  discovery  not  unlikely  to  have 
taken  place,  and  much  more  to  the  south ;  but  with 
adventures  which  border  on  the  incredible.  It  is 
contained  in  the  Eyrbiggia  Saga.  Towards  the  end 
of  King  Olaf  the  Saint's  time,  about  1030,  Gunleif,  on 
his  voyage  westward  from  Iceland  to  Ireland,  was 
overtaken  by  a  heavy  storm  from  east  and  north-east, 
which  drove  him  far  out  to  sea  to  the  south-west,  so 
that  none  of  them  knew  where  they  were.  After 
driving  about  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  they 
came  to  land;  but  were  seized  by  the  natives,  who 
came  in  crowds  to  the  vessel,  and  spoke  a  language 
they  did  not  understand,  but  it  appeared  to  them 
like  Irish.  They  observed  that  the  natives  were  dis- 
puting whether  to  make  slaves  of  them  or  put  them 
to  death.  In  the  meantime  an  old  grand-looking 
man,  with  white  hair,  came  riding  along,  and  all  the 
natives  received  him  with  the  greatest  respect.  He 
accosted  the  Icelanders  in  the  Norse  tongue,  and  asked 
them  if  Snorro  the  Godar  (one  of  the  most  important 
personages  in  Iceland)  was  alive  still,  and  his  sister 
Thuride.  He  would  not  tell  his  name,  and  forbade  his 
countrymen  to  come  there  again,  as  the  people  were 
fierce,  and  attacked  strangers,  and  the  country  had 
no  good  harbours.  He  gave  them  a  gold  ring  to 
deliver  to  Thuride,  whom,  he  said,  he  liked  better  than 
her  brother  Snorro,  and  a  sword  for  Thuride' s  son. 
Gunleif  brought  these  things  home,  and  people  con- 
cluded that  the  man  must  have  been  Biorn  Breid- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  187 

vikingkappe,  a  scald,  who  was  much  respected,  and  J^^^^iJJ;, 
who  had  fallen  in  love  with  Thuride,  on  which  account  — ;~ 
her  husband  and  her  brother  had  persecuted  him,  and 
he  had  left  Iceland  in  a  vessel  about  the  year  998, 
and  had  never  afterwards  been  heard  of:  "  and  this 
is  the  only  truth  known  concerning  Biorn."  This 
saga  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  or  composed  in 
the  beginning  of  the  13th  century ;  as  it  mentions  one 
Gudney  telling  him  the  saga- writer,  of  taking  up  and 
interring  in  a  church  the  bones  of  some  of  Snorro  the 
Godar's  predecessors,  and  this  Gudney  is  known  to 
have  died  about  1220.  The  legend  has  a  value  inde- 
pendent of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  details.  These 
are  at  least  improbable.  The  man  could  have  no 
object  in  concealing  his  name,  which  the  tokens  he 
was  sending  to  Iceland  would  at  once  reveal,  and  no 
intelligible  motive  for  not  returning  with  his  country- 
men. But  it  is  valuable,  because,  wliate3ceiLjiiayJ:ie 
the  truth  of  the  fillino;  up,  or  even  of  the  main  event 
of  a  ,vessel  being  driven  to  an  unknown  land,  it  shows 
an  existingj['umour  or  idea  aniong  seafaring. men,  long 
before  Columbus's  discoveries^  that  a. north-east  wind 
would  bring  a  vessel  sailing  from  IcelandjjQ  Tre1anr| 
to  a  new  land  on  the  south-west,  if  she  ran  before  it ; 
and  not  into  an  uninhabitable  region  of  fire,  ^sf,  the 
Romans  appear  to  have  conceived  of  the  world,  ^ome 
obscure  knowledge  of  a  western  land  must  have  been 
circulating  as  a  foundation  for  this  legend.  The  White 
Man's  Land,  the  Great  Ireland,  a  country  in  the  west 
peopled  by  Christians  originally  of  Ireland,  has  the 
same  kind  of  value  of  showing  that  men,  either  from 
the  reason  in  the  supposition,  which  is  the  most  likely, 
or  from  some  actual  chance  discovery,  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  there  was  land  in  the  west  oppo- 
site the  shores  of  Europe ;  and  it  also  has  the  same 
kind  of  worthlessness  as  the  other  two  legends — that 
the  details  are  evidently  fictitious  and  improbable. 


188  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


OF 

ST U RLE 
SON. 


MEMOIR  OF  SNORRO  STURLESON. 

MEMOIR  Snorro  Sturleson  was  born  in  the  year  1178,  at 
Hvam,  in  the  present  baihwick  of  Dale,  in  the  western 
province  of  Iceland.  His  father,  Sturla  Thordarson, 
was  a  man  of  consequence,  descended  from  the  royal 
stock  of  Odin  to  which  the  Northern  kings,  and  all 
the  great  families  among  the  Northmen,  traced  their 
lineage ;  and  he  held  by  hereditary  right  the  dignity 
of  a  Godar,  which  in  the  times  of  the  Odin  worship 
was  hereditary  in  certain  families  descended  from  the 
twelve  Diars,  Drottars,  or  Godars,  who  accompanied 
Odin  from  Asagard.  The  office  of  Godar  appears  to 
have  combined  the  functions  of  priest  and  judge  ori- 
ginally; and  long  after  the  sacerdotal  function  had 
ceased  the  judicial  remained,  and  was  exercised  as  an 
hereditary  jurisdiction  over  the  locahty  or  godard, 
even  long  after  the  establishment  of  Christianity. 
Snorro  was  sent  in  his  infancy  to  John  Loptson,  of 
Odda,  to  be  fostered.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  age 
for  people  of  consequence  to  send  their  children  to  be 
fostered  by  others,  sometimes  of  higher  and  sometimes 
of  lower  station ;  but  always  of  a  station,  connection, 
or  influence  that  would  be  of  use  afterwards  to  the 
foster-child.  This  fostering  was  not  merely  nursing 
the  child  until  he  was  weaned,  but  implied  bringing 
him  up  to  the  age  of  manhood ;  and  the  ties  of  foster- 
father,  foster-son,  and  foster-brother,  appear  to  have 
been  as  strong  and  influential  as  the  natural  ties  of 
blood  relationship.  The  custom  has  arisen  in  tur- 
bulent times,  from  the  policy  of  not  giving  an  oppor- 
tunity to  hereditary  enemies  to  cut  oiF  an  entire 
family  at  one  swoop,  leaving  no  heir  and  avenger, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  189 


STUIU^E- 
SON. 


and  of  strengthening  the  family  by  collateral  alliances  memoir 
through  the  new  ties.  We  read  of  many  instances  of 
the  kings  sending  their  infants  to  influential  bonders 
to  be  fostered ;  by  which,  no  doubt,  a  great  local  in- 
terest and  connection  was  secured  to  the  foster-child. 
In  the  social  state  of  those  ages  each  family  was  a 
distinct  dynasty,  beholden  for  its  security  to  its  o^vn 
strength  in  friends  and  followers,  and  its  own  power 
to  avenge  its  wrongs,  rather  than  to  the  guardianship 
and  force  of  law.  The  system  of  fosterage  was  a  con- 
sequence of  this  social  state ;  and  the  custom  lingered 
in  England  for  a  long  time  in  the  form  of  sending 
children  to  be  brought  up  as  pages  in  the  families  of 
distinguished  personages.  John  Loptson  appears  to 
have  been  a  person  of  more  distinction  than  Snorro's 
own  father.  His  grandfather  was  Saemund  hinn 
Erode,  the  contemporary  of  Are  who  first  committed 
the  historical  sagas  to  writing ;  and  Saemund  himself 
was  the  compiler  of  the  older  Edda.  John  Loptson's 
mother,  Thora,  was  an  illegitimate  daughter  of  King 
Magnus  Barefoot.  In  such  a  family,  we  may  pre- 
sume the  literature  of  the  country  would  be  culti- 
vated, and  the  sagas  of  the  historical  events  in  Nor- 
way, and  of  the  transactions  of  her  race  of  kings, 
would  be  studied  with  great  interest. 

One  would  like  to  know  how  people  of  distinction 
in  that  age  lived  and  were  lodged  in  Iceland  ?  What 
kind  of  house  and  housekeeping  the  daughter  of  a 
king  would  have  there  ?  We  have  no  positive  data 
to  judge  from ;  but  we  may  infer  from  various  circum- 
stances that  this  class  would  be  at  least  as  well  off  as 
in  Norway;  that  comparatively  the  comforts,  luxu- 
ries, and  splendour  of  life  in  the  poor  countries,  would 
not  be  so  much  inferior  to  those  of  the  rich  countries 
as  in  our  own  days.  Sugar,  coffee,  tea,  silks,  cotton, 
and  all  foreign  articles,  were  almost  equally  out  of 
reach  and  enjoyment  in  all  the  countries  of  the  North. 


190  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


OF 

STURLE 
SON. 


MEMOIR  From  the  natural  products,  or  crops  of  the  land,  all 
that  was  enjoyed  had  to  be  obtained.  Iceland  enjoyed 
the  advantage  of  more  security  of  property  and 
person  ;  and  the  natural  products  of  Iceland,  —  fish, 
oil,  skins,  butter,  wool,  and  before  the  introduction  of 
cotton  as  a  clothing  material,  the  wadmal,  or  coarse 
woollen  cloth  manufactured  in  Iceland,  in  which  rent 
and  taxes  were  paid,  and  which  circulated  as  money 
through  all  the  North,  and  in  which  even  other  goods 
were  valued  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  — would  all  be 
of  much  higher  comparative  value  than  in  after  ages, 
when  commerce  and  manufactures  gave  people  a 
greater  supply  of  better  and  cheaper  articles  for  the 
same  uses.  The  market  for  wood  of  Norway  being 
confined  to  such  islands  as  produced  none  for  building 
purposes,  the  houses  would  probably  be  much  the 
same  in  size  and  conveniences  as  those  common 
among  all  classes  in  Norway,  and  little  more  ex- 
pensive. The  trade  of  bartering  their  products  for 
those  of  other  countries  would  probably  be  much 
more  extensive  than  now,  because  their  kind  of  pro- 
ducts were  much  more  generally  used  in  other  coun- 
tries. In  Drontheim,  Bergen,  and  Tunsberg,  several 
merchant  vessels  at  the  same  time  are  often  spoken  of 
in  the  sagas;  and  Torfseus,  in  his  "  Yinlandia, "  page 
69.,  mentions  a  Hrafnus  Limiricepeta,  so  called  from 
his  frequent  voyages  to  Limeric  in  Ireland  —  a  Li- 
meric  trader,  —  who  had  related  to  Thorfinn,  Earl  of 
Orkney,  some  accounts  of  a  Great  Ireland  in  the  West- 
ern Ocean.  In  the  Fasreyinga  Saga,  we  read  of  mer- 
chants frequenting  the  Feroe  Isles  to  purchase  the 
products  of  the  country,  and  of  the  people  sending 
oif  cargoes  of  their  wool  to  Norway.  The  commercial 
intercourse  of  those  times  has  probably  been  greater 
than  we  suppose,  although  dealings  were  only  in  the 
rude  products  of  one  land  bartered  against  those  of 
another.    Matthew  Paris  tells  us  of  his  being  at  Bergen 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  191 


STU  RLE- 
SON. 


in  the  year  1248,  and  of  there  being  more  than  200  memoir 
vessels  in  that  port  at  the  same  time.  The  poorer 
lands  and  countries  of  Europe,  and  the  employment 
of  their  inhabitants,  have  in  fact  undergone  a  great 
depreciation  in  value,  and  which  is  still  going  on,  by 
the  introduction  and  general  diffusion  of  better  ar- 
ticles for  food,  clothing,  and  enjoyment,  from  better 
climes,  and  by  the  diffusion  of  more  refined  tastes 
and  habits  than  the  products  of  their  soil  and  in- 
dustry can  gratify.  When  wadmal,  or  coarse  woollen 
cloth,  was  the  ordinary  wear  ;  stock-fish,  or  salt  fish, 
in  great  use  even  in  royal  households  ;  fish  oil  the 
only  means  in  the  North  for  lighting  rooms,  —  the 
poorest  countries,  such  as  Iceland,  Greenland,  or  the 
north  of  Norway,  which  produced  these,  must  have 
been  much  more  on  a  par  with  better  countries,  such 
as  Denmark  or  England,  which  did  not  produce  them, 
and  must  have  been  comparatively  much  better  to 
live  in,  and  the  inhabitants  nearer  to  the  general  con- 
dition of  the  people  of  other  countries,  than  they  are 
now.  The  daughter  of  King  Magnus  Barefoot  would 
probably  be  as  well  lodged,  fed,  clothed,  and  attended, 
as  she  would  have  been  in  Scotland  in  that  age. 

John  Loptson  died  when  Snorro  was  nineteen  years 
of  age.  Snorro  continued  to  live  with  his  foster- 
brothers,  his  own  father  being  dead,  and  his  patrimony 
inconsiderable  and  much  wasted  by  his  mother.  At 
twenty-one  years  of  age  he  married  Herdisa,  the 
daughter  of  a  wealthy  priest  called  Berse,  who  lived 
at  Berg,  in  the  bailiwick,  of  Myre,  where  he  also  took 
up  his  abode.  He  got  a  considerable  fortune  with  his 
wife  *,  by  whom  he  had  several  children,  but  only  two 
who  grew  up ;  a  son  called  John  Murt,  and  a  daughter 
called  Halbera.    He  had  also  several  illegitimate  chil- 

*  Four  thousand  dollars  it  is  reckoned  to  have  been  by  antiquaries 
—  a  large  fortune  before  silver  became  plentiful  by  the  discovery  of 
America. 


192  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

MEMOIR  dren ;  a  son  called  Uraekia,  and  a  daughter  called  Inge- 
^^son:'^"  borg.  After  being  twenty-five  years  married  to  Her- 
disa,  he  married,  sometime  about  1224,  she  being 
still  alive,  another  wife,  Halveig,  a  rich  widow,  with 
whom  he  got  also  a  large  fortune.  He  quarrelled 
with  the  children  of  his  first  wife  about  their  fortunes 
to  which  they  were  entitled  when  he  parted  from  their 
mother.  He  was  in  enmity  also  with  the  husbands 
of  both  his  daughters,  each  of  whom  had  been  di- 
vorced, or  had  had  two  husbands ;  and  these  sons-in- 
law,  and  his  own  brother  Sighvat,  were  the  parties  who 
finally  murdered  him  in  their  family  feud.  What  is 
knoAvn  of  Snorro  Sturleson  is  derived  from  an  account 
of  the  Sturle  family,  called  the  "  Sturlunga  Saga," 
composed  evidently  by  one  of  the  descendants  of  the 
kinsmen  with  whom  he  had  been  in  enmity.  His  bad 
actions  are  probably  exaggerated,  and  his  good  con- 
cealed. With  every  allowance,  however,  for  the  false 
colouring  which  hatred  and  envy  may  have  given  to 
the  picture,  Snorro  appears  from  it  to  have  been  a 
man  of  violent  disposition, — greedy,  selfish,  ambitious, 
and  under  no  restraint  of  principle  in  gratifying  his 
avarice  and  evil  passions.  He  is  accused  of  amassing 
great  wealth  by  unjust  litigation  with  his  nearest 
kindred,  and  by  retaining  unjustly  the  property  which 
of  right  belonged  to  them  on  his  parting  with  his  first 
wife  ;  and  of  appearing  at  the  Things  with  an  armed 
body  of  600  or  800  men,  and  obtaining  by  force  the 
leo-al  decisions  he  desired.  He  is  accused  also  of 
having,  on  his  visits  to  Norway,  betrayed  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  country,  and  contributed  to  reduce 
Iceland  to  the  state  of  a  province  of  Norway.  It  is 
probable  that  much  of  the  vices  of  the  age,  and  of  the 
inevitable  events  in  history  prepared  by  causes  of 
remote  origin,  is  heaped  up  by  the  saga-writer  on 
Snorro' s  head.  He  was  clearly  guilty  of  the  two 
greatest   charges  which,  in  a  poor  country  and  ig- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  193 


OF 

STURLE. 
SON. 


norant  age,  can  be  brought  against  a  man  —  he  was  memoir 
comparatively  rich,  and  comparatively  learned.  Of 
his  wealth  we  are  told  that  he  possessed  six  consi- 
derable farms,  on  which  his  stock  of  cattle  was  so 
great  that  in  one  year,  in  which  fodder  was  scarce, 
he  lost  120  head  of  oxen,  without  being  seriously 
affected  by  it  in  his  circumstances.  He  employed 
much  of  his  wealth  in  improving  and  fortifying  his 
main  residence  at  Reikholt,  to  which  he  had  removed 
from  Berg.  At  Reikholt  he  constructed  a  bathing 
room  of  cut  freestone,  into  which  the  water  from  a 
warm  spring  in  the  neighbourhood  was  conducted  by 
a  covered  drain  or  pipe.  Stone  buildings  in  the  North 
being  rare,  this  structure  was  considered  magnificent, 
and  is  spoken  of  as  a  proof  at  once  of  Snorro's  wealth 
and  extravagance.  In  this  age  it  will  rather  be  consi- 
dered a  2^roof  that  Snorro  was  a  man  of  habits  far  more 
refined  than  those  of  the  people  around  him ;  that,  tri- 
fling as  the  structure  may  have  been,  it  shows  a  mind 
of  great  energy  and  activity  to  have  executed  it,  and 
of  some  refinement  and  improved  habits  to  have  felt 
the  want  of  accommodations  for  personal  cleanliness 
in  his  house.  Snorro's  first  journey  to  Norway  ap- 
pears to  have  been  about  the  year  1221,  when  he  was 
forty-three  years  of  age,  and  was  still  married  to  his 
first  wife  Herdisa.  He  appears  to  have  come  to 
Norway  on  a  visit  to  Earl  Hakon  Galin,  who  was 
married  to  Lady  Christina,  the  daughter  of  King 
Sigurd  the  Crusader.  We  are  told  in  the  Sturlunga 
Saga,  that  Snorro  had  composed  a  poem  in  honour  of 
the  earl,  who  in  return  had  sent  him  a  sword  and  a 
suit  of  armour.  On  his  arrival  he  found  that  the 
earl  was  dead,  and  his  widow  was  married  again  to 
Askel,  the  Lagman  of  Gotland.  He  remained  the 
first  winter  at  the  court  of  King  Hakon  and  Earl 
Skule,  who  then  ruled  over  Norway,  and  proceeded 
in  summer  to  visit  Lady  Christina,  by  whom  he  was 
VOL.  I.  o 


194  CHKONICLE    OF    THE 


OF 

STURLE- 
SON. 


MEMOIR  ^vell  received ;  and  it  may  be  supposed  tliat  on  this 
journey  he  collected  the  information  relative  to  former 
transactions  in  Sweden  and  Denmark,  as  well  as  in 
Norway,  that  he  gives  in  his  Chronicle.  The  Lady 
Christina  was  a  daughter  of  King  Sigurd  the  Crusader, 
by  Malmfrid,  a  daughter  of  King  Harald  of  Novogorod, 
whose  mother  was  Gyde,  a  daughter  of  the  English 
King  Harald,  the  son  of  Earl  Godwin,  who  fell  at  the 
battle  of  Hastings.  This  Lady  Christina  appears  to 
have  been  married  first  to  Erling  Skakke,  by  whom 
she  had  a  son,  who  was  king  of  Norway,  Magnus 
Erlingsson,  in  the  middle  of  whose  reign  Snorro's 
Chronicle  ends.  She  was  then  married  to  Earl  Hakon 
Galin,  after  whom  she  married  the  Lagman  AskeL 
On  his  return  from  this  visit  Snorro  remained  two 
years  with  Earl  Skule  in  Norway.  It  is  evident  that, 
as  a  chronicler,  Snorro  Sturleson  had  thus  enjoyed 
opportunities  of  collecting  or  correcting  the  accounts 
of  transactions  of  former  times,  which  few  contempo- 
rary writers  possessed.  He  was  made  a  cup-bearer, 
or  dish-bearer,  equivalent  to  the  modern  dignity  of 
chamberlain,  by  King  Hakon ;  and  is  accused  by  his 
enemies  of  having  •  entered  into  a  private  agreement 
with  the  king  and  Earl  Skule  that  he  should  use  his 
influence  to  subvert  the  independence  which  Iceland 
had  hitherto  enjoyed,  and  to  persuade  the  Thing  to 
submit  to  the  government  of  the  King  of  Norway ; 
and  that  he  should  be  made  the  king's  lenderman,  or 
even  earl  over  the  country,  in  reward  of  this  service. 
Whatever  may  have  been  Snorro  Sturleson's  ambition 
or  want  of  principle,  no  grounds  for  this  charge  ap- 
pear in  liis  life.  The  subjection  of  Iceland  to  the 
crown  of  Norway  was,  on  the  contrary,  carried  into 
effect  two  years  after  his  murder  by  his  personal 
enemies ;  and  the  event  may  rather  be  considered  the 
inevitable  result  of  the  changes  which  had  taken  place 
in  the  social  condition,  military  spirit,  and  arrange- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  195 


OF 

STURLE. 
SON. 


ments  and  relative  importance  of  different  countries,    memoir 
about  the  middle  of  tlie  ISth  century,  than  the  conse- 
quence of  any  conspiracy  or  treachery.     Snorro  re- 
turned to  Eeikholt,  and,  divorcing  his  first  wife,  mar- 
ried his  second  wife,  for  the  sake,  it  is  alleged,  of  her 
large  fortune,  and  became  the  richest,  and  probably 
the   most  unhappy  man  of  his  day,  in  Iceland.     He 
was  involved  in  disputes  and  lawsuits  with  his  sons 
and  his  wife's  family,  who  appear  to  have  had  just 
and   legal  claims  to   their  shares   of  the  properties 
which  he  continued  to  keep  in  his   own  possession. 
He  appears  to  have  visited  Norway  once,  if  not  twice 
again,  before  or  about  the  year  1237,  and  to  have 
attached  himself  to  the  party  of  Duke  Skule,  who  had 
claims  on  the  succession  to  the  crown  of  Norway.    In 
1237,  Snorro  returned  to  Iceland,  and  Duke  Skule 
assumed  the  title  of  king  at  Drontheim,  in  opposition 
to  his  son-in-law,  King  Hakon  Hakonson  ;  but  in  the 
following  year  he   and   his   son  were   slain.      Snorro 
Sturleson,  as  a  friend  or  adherent  of  Duke  Skule,  was 
declared  a  traitor  by  King  Hakon.     As   the  king's 
chamberlain,  he  might  in  that  age,  although  not  a 
Norwegian  subject,  be  considered  a  traitor.     Letters 
from  the  kino^  were  issued  to  his  enemies  to  brino' 
him  prisoner  to  Norway,  or  to  put  him  to  death ;  and 
on  this  authority  his  relations,  with  whom  he  was  in 
enmity  in  a  family  feud, — his  three  sons-in-law,  Gissur, 
Kolbein,  and  Arne,  —  came  by  night,  in  September 
1241,  to  his  residence  at  Reikholt,  and  murdered  him 
in  the  63rd  year  of  his  age.     The  same  party,  two 
years   afterwards,  brought  Iceland  under  subjection 
to  the  crown  of  Norway.     It  seems  unjust  to  throw 
upon  the  memory  of  Snorro  Sturleson,  as  far  as  the 
circumstances  can  be  made  out,  the  imputation  of 
having    sought   to   betray  the  independence    of  his 
country,  when  no  overt  act  of  his  appears  to  have 
tended   to   that   result,  and  when  his  enemies,  who 

o  2 


196  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

MEMOIR  assassinated  him,  and  from  whom  alone  any  account 
^^son!^'  of  his  life  proceeds,  were  avowedly  the  parties  who 
brought  it  about.  But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  their 
accounts,  and  even  their  enmity,  prove  that  Snorro 
has  been  a  man  unjust  to  and  hated  by  his  family, — 
selfish,  rapacious,  and  without  restraint  from  principle 
or  natural  affection. 

The  judgment  for  posterity  to  come  to  probably  is, 
that  Snorro  Sturleson,  and  even  his  relations  who 
murdered  him,  were  rather  a  type  of  the  age  in  which 
they  lived,  than  individuals  particularly  prominent 
for  wickedness  in  that  age.  The  moral  influences  of 
Christianity  had  not  yet  taken  root  among  the  North- 
men, while  the  rude  virtues  of  their  barbarous  pagan 
forefathers  were  extinct.  The  island  of  Iceland  had 
never  contained  above  sixty-three  or  sixty-four  thou- 
sand inhabitants — the  population  of  an  ordinary  town. 
The  providing  of  food,  fuel,  and  of  winter  provender 
for  their  cattle,  and  such  employments,  have  necessarily 
at  all  times  occupied  a  much  greater  proportion  of  the 
population  than  in  more  favoured  climes.  The  en- 
terprising, energetic,  and  restless  spirits  found  occu- 
pation abroad  in  the  roving  viking  expeditions  of  the 
Norwegians,  for  the  Icelanders  themselves  fitted  out 
no  viking  expeditions ;  while  the  equally  ambitious, 
but  more  peaceful  and  cultivated,  appear  to  have 
acquired  property  and  honour,  as  scalds,  in  no  incon- 
siderable number.  But  the  rise  of  the  Hanseatic 
League,  and  the  advance  of  the  south  and  west  of 
Europe  in  civilisation,  trade,  and  naval  power,  had 
extinguished  the  vikings  on  the  sea.  They  were  no 
longer,  in  public  estimation,  exercising  an  allowable  or 
honourable  profession ;  but  were  treated  as  common 
robbers,  and  punished.  The  diffusion  of  Christianity, 
and  of  a  lettered  clergy  over  the  Scandinavian  penin- 
sula, had  in  the  same  age  superseded  the  scalds,  even 
as  recorders  of  law  or  history.     The  scald,  with  his 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  197 


OF 

STU  RLE- 
SON. 


saga  and  his  traditional  verses,  gave  way  at  once  before  memoir 
the  clerk,  with  his  paper,  pen,  and  ink.  Both  occu- 
pations—  that  of  the  viking  and  of  the  scald — fell  as 
it  were  at  once,  and  in  one  generation, — in  the  end  of 
the  12th  and  beginning  of  the  13th  century;  and  the 
wild,  unquiet,  ambitious  spirits,  in  the  small  Icelandic 
population,  which  were  formerly  absorbed  by  them, 
were  thrown  back  into  their  native  island,  and  there, 
like  tigers  shut  up  together  in  a  den,  they  preyed  on 
or  worried  each  other.  In  Scandinavia  itself  the 
same  causes  produced  in  that  age  the  same  effects. 
The  Birkebeiners  and  the  Baglers,  who,  from  the 
middle  of  Magnus  Erlingsson's  reign,  raised  their 
leaders  alternately  to  the  Norwegian  crown,  were  in 
reality  the  vikings,  driven  from  the  seas  to  the  forests, 
—  were  the  daring,  the  idle,  the  active  of  society,  who 
could  find  no  living  or  employment  in  the  ordinary 
occupations  of  husbandry,  which  were  preoccupied  by 
the  ordinary  agricultural  population,  nor  in  the  few 
branches  of  manufacture  or  commerce  then  exercised 
as  means  of  subsistence ;  and  whose  former  occupations 
of  piracy  at  sea,  or  marauding  expeditions  on  land 
under  foreign  vikings,  was  cut  off  by  the  progress  of 
Christian  influences  on  conduct, —  of  the  power  of  law, 
and  of  the  naval,  mxilitary,  and  commercial  arrange- 
ments in  all  other  countries.  The  employments  and 
means  of  living  peaceably  were  not  increased  so  rapidly, 
as  the  employment  given  by  private  warfare  on  sea 
and  land  had  been  put  down ;  and  in  all  Europe  there 
was  an  overpopulation,  in  proportion  to  the  means  of 
earning  a  peaceful  livelihood,  which  produced  the 
most  dreadful  disorders  in  society.  This  was  probably 
the  main  cause  of  the  unquiet,  unsettled  state  of  every 
country,  from  the  11th  century  to  the  15th.  The 
Crusades  even  appear  to  have  been  fed  not  more  by 
fanaticism,  than  by  this  want  of  employment  at  home 
in  every  country.     Law  and  social  order  were  begin- 

o  3 


198  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


MEMOIR  ning  to  prevail,  and  to  put  down  private  wars,  and 
sTui^LE-  -^Ijq  claim  of  every  petty  baron  to  garrison  his  robber 
nest  and  pillage  the  weak ;  but  this  growing  security 
had  not  advanced  so  far  that  trade  and  manufacture 
could  absorb,  and  give  a  living  to,  the  men  not  wanted 
in  agricultural  and  thrown  out  of  military  employ- 
ment. It  takes  a  long  time,  apparently,  before  those 
tastes  and  habits  of  a  nation  on  which  manufactures 
and  commerce  are  founded,  can  be  raised.  Society 
was  in  a  transition  state.  The  countries  which  took 
but  little  part  in  the  Crusades,  —  such  as  Scotland, 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  this  little  population 
of  Iceland,  —  and  which  had  no  outlet  for  the  unquiet 
spirits  reared  in  private  wars  or  piracy,  present  a 
deplorable  state  of  society  for  many  generations.  A 
bad,  unquiet,  cut-throat  spirit,  was  transmitted  to 
succeeding  generations,  and  kept  those  countries  in 
a  half-barbarous  state  to  a  much  later  period  than  the 
other  countries  which  had  got  rid  of  a  prior  turbulent 
generation  in  the  Crusades.  The  Sturlunga  Saga,  or 
account  of  Snorro  and  his  family,  contains  httle  else 
but  a  recital  of  private  feuds  in  Iceland, —  of  murders, 
burning  of  houses,  treachery,  and  a  social  disorganis- 
ation among  this  handful  of  people,  which  might  well 
excuse  Snorro  Sturleson  if  he  had  wished  and  at- 
tempted to  obtain  the  common  benefit  of  all  social 
union  —  the  security  of  life  and  property  —  by  the 
surrender  of  a  nominal  independence,  but  a  real 
anarchy,  into  the  hands  of  a  government  strong 
enough  to  make  laws  respected. 

Snorro  Sturleson  must  be  measured,  not  by  our 
scale  of  moral  and  social  worth,  but  by  the  scale  of 
his  own  times.  Measured  by  that  scale,  he  will  be 
ju.dged  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  but  rough  energy 
of  mind, — of  strong  selfishness,  rapacity,  and  passions 
unrestrained  by  any  moral,  religious,  or  social  con- 
sideration,—  a  bold,  bad,  unprincipled  man,  of  intcl- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  199 


OF 

STURLE- 
SON. 


lectual  powers  and  cultivation  far  above  any  of  memoir 
his  contemporaries  whose  literary  productions  have 
reached  us,  —  a  specimen  of  the  best  and  worst  in  the 
characters  of  men  in  that  transition-age  from  bar- 
barism to  civilisation,  —  a  type  of  the  times,  —  a  man 
rough,  wild,  vigorous  in  thought  and  deed,  like  the 
men  he  describes  in  his  Chronicle. 

How,  it  may  fairly  be  asked,  could  a  work  of  such 
literary  merit  as  the  translator  claims  for  Snorro 
Sturleson's  Chronicle,  have  lain  hid  so  long  from 
English  readers,  and  have  been  valued,  even  on  the 
Continent,  only  by  a  few  antiquaries  in  search,  of 
small  facts  connected  with  Danish  history  ?  The 
Heimskringla  has  been  hardly  used  by  the  learned 
men  of  the  period  in  which  it  was  first  published. 
It  appeared  first  in  the  literary  world  in  1697,  frozen 
into  the  Latin  of  the  Swedish  antiquary  Peringskiold. 
A  Swedish  translation,  indeed,  as  well  as  a  Latin,  ac- 
companied the  Icelandic  text;  but  the  Swedish  lan- 
guage was  then,  and  is  now,  scarcely  more  known 
than  the  Icelandic  in  the  fields  of  European  literature. 
Modern  Latin,  or  Latin  applied  to  subjects  beyond  its 
own  classical  range,  is  a  very  imperfect  medium  for 
conveying  realities  to  the  mind,  and,  like  algebra, 
presents  only  equivalents  for  things  or  words,  —  not 
the  living  words  and  impressions  themselves.  It  may 
be  an  advantage  in  science,  law,  metaphysics,  to  work 
with  the  dead  terms  of  a  dead  fixed  language ;  but  in 
all  that  addresses  itself  to  the  fancy,  taste,  or  sym- 
pathy of  men,  the  dead  languages  are  dead  indeed, 
and  do  not  convey  ideas  vividly  to  the  mind  like  the 
words  of  a  living  tongue  belonging  to  existing  realities. 
Conceive  Shakspeare  translated  into  Latin,  or  Schiller, 
or  Sir  Walter  Scott !  Would  the  scholar  the  most 
versed  in  that  language  have  the  slightest  idea  of 
those  authors,  or  of  their  merits  ?  About  the  time 
also  when  Peringskiold  published  the  Heimskringla, 

o  4 


200  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

MEMOIR  antiquarian  researcli  was,  and  still  continues  to  be,  the 
^^soK^"  pi'incipal  literary  occupation  of  the  educated  classes  in 
Sweden  and  Denmark,  and  that  which  led,  more  than 
any  other  branch  of  literature,  to  distinction  and 
substantial  reward  from  government.  Peringskiold, 
Torfaeus,  Arne  Magnusen,  Schoning,  and  many  other 
antiquaries  of  great  learning,  research,  and  talent  in 
their  own  antiquarian  pursuits,  dug  for  celebrity  in 
this  mine  of  the  Heimskringla,  and  generally  threw 
away  the  sterling  ore  to  bring  home  the  worthless 
pebble.  Dates  were  determined,  localities  ascertained, 
royal  genealogies  put  to  rights,  —  the  ancestor  of  the 
Danish  dynasty  proved,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  men, 
to  have  been  a  descendant  of  Odin  called  Skiold,  and 
not  Dan, — and  a  great  deal  of  such  learned  dust  was 
raised,  swept  into  a  heap,  and  valued  as  dust  of  gold ; 
but  the  historical  interest,  the  social  condition,  the 
political  institutions  of  the  Northmen,  as  delineated  in 
the  Heimskringla,  were  not  laid  before  the  public  by 
those  great  antiquaries  :  and  possibly  these  were  sub- 
jects of  which  they  could  not  safely  treat.  These 
profound  scholars,  so  laboriously  and  successfully  oc- 
cupied, appear  to  have  forgotten  altogether,  in  their 
zeal  to  do  each  other  justice,  and  amidst  the  compli- 
ments they  were  interchanging  on  their  own  merits, 
that  there  was  a  Snorro  Sturleson  entitled  to  his  share 
in  the  honours.  His  work  was  treated  as  some  of  the 
classics  have  been  by  their  learned  commentators  — 
the  text  overwhelmed,  buried,  and  forgotten,  under 
annotations  and  unimportant  explanations  of  it.  It 
is  pleasing  to  observe  how  the  natural  taste  of  a  people 
selects  what  is  good  in  their  literature,  what  is  adapted 
to  the  mind  of  all,  with  more  just  tact  than  even  the 
educated  classes  among  them.  While  the  merit  of 
Snorro  was  hid  from  the  educated  under  a  mass  of 
learned  rubbish,  the  people  both  in  Norway  and  Den- 
mark had  a  true  feeling  for  it;  and  in  1594  a  trans- 


KINGS    OF   NOEWAY.  201 


lation  into  Danish  of  parts  of  the  Heimskringla  *  memoir 
was  pubhshed  in  Denmark  by  Mortenssen.  In  1599  ^'^^(fiJ;^' 
a  priest,  Peter  Claussen,  —  himself  as  wild  a  man- 
slaying  priest  as  the  priest  Thangbrand,  or  any  other 
of  the  rough  energetic  personages  in  the  work  of 
Snorro,  —  translated  the  Heimskringla  for  the  be- 
nefit of  his  countrymen  in  Norway,  the  language  of 
Snorro  having  become  obsolete,  or  at  least  obscure, 
even  to  the  Norwegian  peasantry.  His  translation 
was  published  in  1633  by  Olaus  Wormius,  and  it  be- 
came a  house-book  among  the  Norwegian  bonders. 

At  the  present  day,  in  the  dwellings  of  the  remote 
valleys,  especially  of  the  Drontheim  district,  —  such  as 
Stordal,  V^rdal,  Indal, — a  well-used  copy  of  some  saga, 
generally  that  of  King  Olaf  the  Saint,  reprinted  from 
Peter  Claussen's  work,  will  be  found  along  with  the 
Bible,  Prayer  Book,  Christian  the  Fourth's  Law  Book, 
and  the  Storthing's  Transactions,  to  be  the  house- 
father's library.  During  a  winter  passed  in  one  of 
those  valleys,  the  translator,  in  the  course  of  acquir- 
ing the  language  of  the  country,  borrowed  one  of 
those  books  from  his  neighbour  Arne  of  Ostgrunden, 
a  bonder  or  peasant-proprietor  of  a  farm  so  called.  It 
was  the  saga  of  King  Olaf  the  Saint.  Keading  it  in 
the  midst  of  the  historical  localities,  and  of  the  very 
houses  and  descendants  of  the  very  men  presented  to 
you  in  the  stirring  scenes  of  this  saga  at  the  battle  of 
Stiklestad,  he  may  very  probably  have  imbibed  an  in- 
terest which  he  cannot  impart  to  readers  unacquainted 

*  The  copy  of  the  Heimskringla  made  in  1230  by  Snorro's  nephew, 
Sturla,  is  considered  the  ground  text  from  which  all  the  other  manu- 
scripts have  been  made ;  and  copies  in  writing  of  his  work  have  been 
made  as  late  as  1567-  The  exact  date  of  any  of  the  manuscripts  used 
by  Mortenssen  in  1594<,  or  by  Claussen  in  1559?  printed  by  Wormius 
in  l663,  or  by  Peringskiold  in  l697j  is  not  ascertained.  They  appear 
to  have  all  had  different  manuscripts  before  them  ;  some  better,  appa- 
rently, in  some  parts,  and  in  others  not  so  perfect.  The  Heimskringla 
of  Schoning,  in  folio,  —  the  first  volume  published  in  1777,  the  last  in 
1826,  in  Icelandic,  Latin,  and  Danish,  at  Copenhagen, — is  the  best. 


202  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

MEMOIR    ^Yith  the  country,  the  people,  and  their  social  state. 

'"^^scTn  ^"  He  read  with  delight  the  account  of  old  manners  and 
ways  of  living  given  in  the  saga, — old,  yet  not  without 
much  resemblance  to  what  still  exists  in  ordinary 
family  life  among  the  bonders.  He  found,  from  know- 
ing the  localities,  the  charm  of  truth  from  internal 
evidence  in  the  narratives  of  that  saga.  It  is  not  un- 
likely that  these  favourable  circumstances  may  have 
given  the  translator  a  higher  impression  of  the  literary 
merit  of  the  Heimskringla,  than  others  may  receive 
from  it.  He  was  not  aware  at  the  time  that  the  volume 
which  delighted  him  was  but  a  translation  of  a  single 
saga  from  Snorro  Sturleson's  work  into  a  Norse  which 
itself  was  becoming  obsolete,  and  like  the  Scotch  of 
Lindsay  of  Pitscottie's  Chronicle,  was  in  some  degree 
a  forgotten  language  even  among  the  peasantry.  It 
has  since  been  the  occasional  and  agreeable  occupation 
of  his  leisure  hours  to  study  the  work  of  Snorro  in 
the  original.  To  much  knowledge  of,  or  familiarity 
with  the  Icelandic,  he  cannot  lay  any  claim.  To  get 
at  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  text,  helping  himself 
over  the  difficulties,  which  generally  only  lay  in  his 
own  ignorance  of  the  language,  by  collating  every 
passage  he  was  in  doubt  about  with  the  meaning 
given  to  it  in  the  translations  of  Peringskiold,  Schon- 
ing,  and  Aal,  and  to  give  a  plain  faithful  translation 
into  English  of  the  Heimskringla,  unencumbered  with 
antiquarian  research,  and  suited  to  the  plain  English 
reader,  has  been  his  object. 

The  short  pieces  of  scaldic  poetry  which  Snorro 
intermixes  with  his  narrative,  and  quotes  as  his  au- 
thorities for  the  facts  he  is  telling,  are  very  difficult 
to  deal  with  in  a  translation.  They  are  not  without 
a  rude  grandeur  of  imagery,  and  a  truthfulness  in 
description  of  battles  and  sea-fights ;  and  they  have 
a  simplicity  which,  although  often  flat,  is  often  natural 
and  impressive.     They  have  probably  been  originally 


KINGS   OF   NOEWAY.  203 

delivered  viva  voce  in  recitative,  so  that  the  voice,    memoir 

'  ^    '  OF 

adroitly  managed,  would  form  a  measure.  Icelandic  ^'^lif^  ^ 
poetry  does  not,  like  the  Greek  or  Latin,  differ  from 
prose  by  certain  measures  or  feet  in  a  verse,  but  has 
a  formation  peculiar  to  itself.  All  Icelandic  poems, 
or  almost  all,  are  divided  into  strophes  consisting  of 
eight  lines.  The  strophe  is  further  subdivided  into 
two  half-strophes,  and  each  of  these  again  into  two 
parts.  Each  part  is  a  fourth  of  the  Avhole  strophe,  and 
contains  two  verses  or  lines.  The  first  of  these  lines  is 
called  the  fore  line,  and  the  second  the  back  hne ;  and 
the  two  are  connected  together,  as  verses,  by  rhyme- 
letters,  or  rhyme-syllables.  This  rhyme-letter,  or 
alliteration,  consists  in  having  two  words  in  the  fore 
line  beginning  with  the  same  initial  letter ;  and  a  third 
word,  that  which  is  the  most  important  in  the  mean- 
ing, in  the  second  or  back  line,  and  beginning  with 
the  same  letter.     For  example  :  — 

'^  Farvel  fagnadar 
Fold  og  heilla." 

''  Farewell,  favoured 
Fold  (land)  and  holy." 

The  letter  F  in  the  word  Fold  is  the  head  letter  of 
the  alliteration,  and  the  same  letter  in  Farvel  and 
fagnadar  are  the  two  subsidiary  alliterative  sounds  in 
the  first  line.  In  the  use  of  this  alliteration  there 
are  several  subdivisions,  from  exceptions  or  limit- 
ations to  the  general  principle.  Besides  this  alliter- 
ation or  letter-rhyme,  there  are  syllable-rhymes,  in 
Avhich  the  first  syllables  of  words,  instead  of  the  first 
letters  only,  form,  by  their  collocation  in  the  fore  and 
back  lines,  the  versification ;  and  if  the  first  syllables 
rhyme  together,  the  last  may  be  difierent  sounds. 
Thus,  merki  and  sterka,  or  gumar  and  sumir,  are  per- 
fect syllable-rhymes  in  a  line.  End-rhymes,  as  in  the 
other  Gothic  languages,  are  also  used  in  Icelandic  ver- 


STURLE. 
SON. 


204  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

MEMOIR    sification,  connected  also  always  with  the  alliterativt 
and  syllabic  rhymes.     Thus :  — 

'^  Nu  er  hersis  hefnd, 
Vid  hilmi  efnd. 
Gengr  ulfr  ok  aern 
Af  ynglings  baern." 

The  two  lines  only  rhyme  together,  in  Icelandic 
versification,  which  are  connected  by  the  rules  of 
alliterative  verse,  —  viz.  the  first  and  second,  and 
the  third  and  fourth;  but  the  first  and  third,  or 
second  and  fourth,  are  never  made  to  rhyme  together. 
Longer  verse -lines  than  of  eight  syllables  are  not 
used,  and  lines  of  three  or  six  appear  more  common. 
A  short  measure,  admitting  of  no  pause  or  caesura  in 
the  middle  of  the  line,  appears  to  have  been  most 
agreeable  to  the  Icelandic  ear,  or  mode  of  recitative 
in  which  the  scalds  have  chanted  their  verses.  These 
observations  are  taken  from  Rask's  "  Yeiledning  til 
det  Islandske  Sprog,  1811;"  in  which  there  is  a  valu- 
able dissertation  on  the  Icelandic  versification,  with 
examples  of  the  different  kinds  of  verses.  Some  later 
Icelandic  scholars  are  of  opinion  that  what  Rask  has 
treated  as  two  lines,  on  the  supposition  that  the  Ice- 
landic versification  had  no  caesura,  had  in  reality  been 
one  line,  with  the  caesura  marked  by  a  rhyme  corre- 
sponding to  the  end-rhyme  of  the  line,  which  middle 
rhyme  is  of  common  occurrence  in  old  English  verses. 
For  example,  in  the  following  old  English  verses  on 
the  Bee,  the  line  is  not  concluded  at  the  rhyme  in  the 
middle,  which  marks  a  strong  caesura  or  pause,  not  a 
total  want  of  it :  — 

"In  winter  daies,  when  Phoebus'  raies 
Are  hid  with  misty  cloudy 
And  stormy  showers  assault  her  bowers. 
And  cause  her  for  to  crowd." 

Buret's  Alvea7'ia,  1580. 

And  also  in  the  Latin  rhymes  of  the  monks  in  the 
middle  ages,  as,  for  instance  in  these,  — 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  205 

'^  Omnia  terrena  per  vices  sunt  aliena,  memoir 

Nunc  mei  nunc  hujus,  post  mortem  nescio  cujus/' —  stukle- 


the  rhyme  by  no  means  concludes  the  line.  The 
mode  of  writmg  on  parchment  or  paper  has,  for 
economy  of  the  material,  been  in  continuous  lines,  like 
prose,  without  any  division,  in  the  manuscripts  of  old 
date ;  so  that  nothing  can  be  concluded  from  the  writ- 
ing concerning  the  length  or  forms  of  the  verses. 
Whether  the  scalds  adapted  their  verses  to  music,  or 
tunes,  seems  not  well  ascertained.  Little  mention,  if 
any,  is  made  in  any  of  the  sagas  of  tunes,  or  musical 
instruments  ;  yet  they  have  had  songs.  All  their 
pieces  are  called  songs,  and  are  said  to  be  sung,  and 
many  of  them  evidently  were  intended  to  be  sung. 
We  find  mention  also  of  old  songs ;  for  instance,  the 
"  Biarkemal,"  was  instantly  recognised  by  the  whole 
army  at  Stiklestad.  They  must  have  had  tunes  for 
these  songs.  We  find  also  a  refrain,  or  chorus  to 
songs,  mentioned.  All,  perhaps,  that  can  be  safely  said 
of  Icelandic  versification  is,  that  the  system  has  been 
very  artificial,  and  full  of  technical  difiiculties  in  the 
construction  ;  and,  independently  of  the  beauties  of 
poetic  spirit  and  ideas,  may  have  had  the  merit  of 
technical  difiiculties  in  the  verse  adroitly  overcome  by 
the  scald,  —  a  merit  which  it  would  be  going  too  far  to 
contemn,  because  we,  with  minds  and  ears  not  trained 
in  the  same  way,  cannot  feel  it.  How  much  of  our 
own  most  esteemed  poetry  gives  us  pleasure  from 
similar  conventional  sources  distinct  altogether  from 
poetical  imagery,  or  ideas  which  all  men  of  all  coun- 
tries and  ages  would  relish  and  feel  pleasure  from? 
There  may  also  have  been  a  harmony  and  measured 
cadence  given  by  the  voice  in  reciting  or  chanting 
such  verses — and  they  were  composed  to  be  recited, 
not  silently  read — which  are  lost  to  us.  All  we  can 
judge  of  them  is,  that  if  such  verses  could  be  con- 
structed in  the  English  language,  they  would  be  mth- 


SON. 


206  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

MEMOIR  out  harmony  or  otlier  essential  property  of  verse  to 
sTuj^^E-  ^g .  as  our  minds,  ears,  and  the  genius  of  our  language 
are  formed  in  a  different  mould.  Besides,  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  construction  of  the  verse,  the  poetical 
language,  and  the  allusions  to  the  Odin  mythology, 
are  so  obscure,  involved,  and  far-fetched,  that  volumes 
of  explanation  would  be  necessary  almost  for  every 
line  in  any  verbatim  translation.  TorfaBus,  who  was 
himself  an  Icelander,  and  was  unquestionably  the  first 
of  northern  antiquaries,  declares  that  much  of  the 
scaldic  poetry  is  so  obscure,  that  no  meaning  at  all 
can  be  twisted  out  of  it  by  the  most  intense  study. 
The  older  and  younger  Eddas  were  in  fact  hand-books 
composed  expressly  for  explaining  the  mythological 
allusions  and  metaphors  occurring  in  the  poetry  of  the 
scalds ;  so  that  this  obscurity  and  difficulty  appear  to 
have  been  felt  even  before  the  Odin  worship  was  totally 
extinct,  and  its  mythology  forgotten.  Examples  ^vill 
best  illustrate  the  obscurity  of  allusion.  In  the  verses 
composed  by  Berse,  quoted  in  the  48th  chapter  of 
Olaf  the  Saint's  Saga,  in  the  sixth  line,  the  literal 
translation  of  the  text  would  be,  "  Giver  of  the  fire 
of  the  ship's  out-field."  The  "  out-field"  of  the  ship 
is  the  ocean  which  surrounds  a  ship,  as  the  out-field 
surrounds  a  farm.  The  fire  of  the  ocean  is  gold ;  be- 
cause JEgir,  when  he  received  the  gods  into  his  hall 
in  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  lighted  it  with  gold  hung 
round  instead  of  the  sun's  rays;  and  hence  the  ocean's 
rays  is  a  common  poetical  term  for  gold  in  the  scaldic 
poetry.  Now  "  the  giver  of  the  fire  of  the  ship's 
out-field  "  means  the  giver  of  gold,  the  generous  king. 
Another  example  of  the  obscurity  of  allusion  is  in 
the  first  line  of  the  verses  quoted  in  the  21st  chapter 
of  Olaf  Tryggvesson's  Saga.  In  the  original  the  ex- 
pression is  literally,  "  Hater  of  the  bow-seat's  fire." 
Now  the  bow-seat  is  the  hand  which  carries  the  bow; 
its  fire  is  the  gold  which  adorns  the  hand  in  rings  or 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  207 


STU  RLE- 
SON. 


bracelets ;  and  the  hater  of  this  fire  is  the  man  who    memoir 
hates  to  keep  it,  who  gives  it  away,  —  the  generous 
man.  Every  piece  ahnost  of  the  scaldic  poetry  quoted 
in  the  Heimskringla  has  allusions  of  this  obscure  kind, 
which  would  be  unintelligible  without  voluminous  ex- 
planation ;  and  yet  the  character  of  these  short  poeti- 
cal pieces  does  not  consist  in  these,  which  seem  to  be 
but  expletives  for  filling  out  their  artificial  structure 
of  verses,    but   in   their   rude    simplicity    and   wild 
grandeur.     The  translator  intended  at  first  to  have 
have  left  out  these  pieces  of  scaldic  poetry  altogether. 
They  are  not  essential  to  Snorro's  prose  narrative  of 
the  events  to  which  they  refer.     They  are  not  even 
authorities  for  the  facts  he  details,  although  he  quotes 
them  in  that  view ;  for  they  only  give  the  summary 
or  heads  of  events  of  which  he  gives  the  particular 
minute  accounts.     They  appear  to  be    catch-words, 
or  preliminary  verses,   for  aiding  the  memory  in  re- 
curring to   some  long  account  or  saga  in   prose    of 
which  they  are  the  compendium  or  text.     The  oldest 
translator  also  of  Snorro's  work,  Peter  Claussen,  who 
is  supposed  to  have  had,  in  1599,  a  manuscript  to 
translate  from  which  is  now  lost,  omits  altogether  the 
verses.     The  translator  consulted  a  literary  friend, — 
his  son,  Mr.  S.  Laing,  late  Fellow  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege Cambridge,  now  of  the  Railroad  Department  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  —  and  went  over  with  him  the 
translation  of  the  prose  narrative  of  Snorro,  and  trans- 
lations into  prose  of  the  poetical  pieces  connected  with 
it.     They  came  to  the  conclusion  that  although  these 
pieces  of  scaldic  poetry  are  not  essential  to  Snorro's 
prose  narrative  of  the  historical  events  to  which  they 
refer,  they  are  essential  to  the  spirit  and  character  of 
Snorro's  work.     However  obscure,  impoetical,  mono- 
tonous in  the  ideas,  or  uninteresting  and  flat  they  may 
be,  they  show  the  mind,  spirit,  and  intellectual  state  of 
the  age  and  people,  —  show  what  it  was  they  considered 


208  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

MEMOIR  poetry ;  and  the  poorest  of  these  compositions  have,  in 
sTURLE-  i]^[^  view,  great  historical  interest.  Many  of  them  are, 
especially  in  the  descriptions  and  imagery  connected 
with  the  warfare  of  those  times,  highly  poetical ;  and, 
under  any  forms  of  verse  or  language,  the  "  Hakon- 
armal,"  chapter  33.  of  Hakon  the  Good's  Saga,  the 
"  Biarkemal,"  chapter  220.  of  Saint  Olaf's  Saga,  and 
many  of  the  pieces  of  Sigvat  the  Scald  and  others, 
would  be  acknowledged  as  genuine  poetry.  On  ex- 
amining more  closely  these  pieces  of  scaldic  poetry,  it 
appears,  in  general,  that  the  second  half  of  the  strophe 
of  eight  lines,  which  their  rules  of  versification  required 
as  the  length  of  their  poetical  pieces,  is  but  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  idea  of  the  first  half,  and  the  second  two 
lines  but  an  echo  of  the  two  first.  The  whole  mean- 
ing— all  that  the  scald  has  to  say  in  the  strophe,  is 
very  often  comprehended  within  the  two  first  lines, 
the  fore  line  and  back  line,  which  are  connected  to- 
gether by  the  alliterative  letters  or  syllables;  and  the 
one  idea  is  ex]3anded,  only  in  other  words,  over  the 
whole  surface  of  the  rest  of  the  strophe  of  eight  lines. 
The  extraordinary  metaphors  and  mythological  allu- 
sions, the  epithets  so  long-winded  and  obscure,  the 
never-ending  imagery  of  wolves  glutted  and  ravens 
feasted  by  the  deeds  of  the  warriors,  arise  evidently 
from  the  necessity  imposed  on  the  scald  of  finding 
alliteratives,  and  conforming  to  the  other  strict  rules 
of  their  versification.  The  beauty  of  this  artificial 
construction  is  lost  even  upon  the  best  Icelandic 
scholars  of  our  times ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been  the 
only  beauty  many  of  these  pieces  of  poetry  ever  pre- 
tended to,  for  the  ideas  so  expressed  are  often  not  in 
any  way  poetical.  Grundtvig,  in  his  translation  into 
Danish  of  the  Heimskringla,  and  some  German  trans- 
lators of  scaldic  poems,  have  cut  the  loop  of  this 
difiiculty.  They  have  taken  only  the  most  poetical 
of  the  pieces  of  the  scalds,  and  have  freely  translated. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  209 

or  freely  paraphrased  them  into  modern  ballads,  or  memoir 
songs,  in  modern  measures.  Grundtvig  has  done  so  ^^'^'n'^' 
with  great  poetic  genius  and  spirit ;  and  his  transla- 
tions have  justly  placed  him  in  the  first  rank  of  Danish 
poets.  Many  of  his  translations  might  be  placed  by 
the  side  of  the  best  pieces  of  Burger  or  of  Scott  in 
the  ballad  style  ;  but  then  they  are  Grundtvig's,  not 
the  scalds'.  They  are  no  more  a  translation  of  the 
verses  of  the  scalds  quoted  by  Snorro  Sturleson,  than 
Shakspeare's  Hamlet  is  a  translation  of  the  story  of 
Hamlet  in  Saxo  Grammaticus. 

The  translator  and  Mr.  S.  Laing  have  rendered 
into  English  verse  these  scaldic  pieces  of  poetry, 
from  prose  translations  of  them  laboriously  made 
out.  The  ideas  in  each  strophe,  the  allusions,  and 
imagery,  were  first  ascertained  by  collating  the  Norse 
translations  of  them  in  M.  Jacob  Aal's  excellent 
translation  of  the  Heimskringla  published  in  1838, 
and  those  in  the  folio  edition  of  1777,  and  the  Latin 
prose  translations  of  them  by  Thorlacius  and  Wer- 
lauf,  in  the  sixth  volume  of  that  edition,  published 
in  1826,  with  the  Icelandic  text.  *  The  ideas,  allu- 
sions, and  imagery  are,  much  oftener  than  could  be 
expected,  obtained,  and  rendered  line  for  line ;  and 
the  meaning  of  each  half  strophe  is  always,  it  is  be- 
lieved, given  in  the  corresponding  four  English  verses. 
The  English  reader,  it  is  hoped,  will  thus  be  better 
able  to  form  an  idea  of  the  poetry  of  the  scalds, 
than  if  the  translators  had  been  more  ambitious, 
and  had  given  a  looser  paraphrase  of  those  pieces  ac- 
cording to  their  own  taste  or  fancy.  Some  of  these 
pieces  of  scaldic  poetry,  it  will  be  seen  even  by  this 

*  The  versions  of  Jacob  Aal  and  Thorlacius  and  Werlauf  into  the 
cognate  Northern  tongue  are  much  more  graphic  than  the  Latin,  and 
more  true  to  the  spirit  of  the  Icelandic.  These  versions  have  been 
referred  to  for  the  meaning  of  the  scald  in  all  cases  in  which  the  Ice- 
landic was  obscure. 

VOL.  I.  P 


210  CHRONICLE    OF    THE    KINGS    OF   NOKWAY. 


OK 

STUHLE 
SON. 


^iEMoiR  clim  reflection^  have  very  considerable  poetical  merit ; 
many,  again,  are  extremely  flat  and  prosaic,  and  are 
merely  prose  ideas  cut  into  the  shape  of  verse  by  the 
scald.  These,  it  must  be  recollected,  may  have  had 
their  beauty  and  merit  in  the  technical  construction 
of  the  verse,  and  may  have  been  very  pleasing  and 
harmonious,  although  such  merits  is  lost  upon  us  in 
a  diff*erent  language.  The  ideas  are  all  we  can  get 
at ;  not  the  forms  and  technical  beauties  of  the  ex- 
pression of  those  ideas.  It  will  not  escape  the  obser- 
vation of  the  English  reader  that  in  the  ideas  there 
is  a  very  tedious  monotony,  in  the  descriptions  of 
battles  and  bloodshed,  in  the  imagery  of  war,  in  the 
epithets  applied  to  the  warriors  and  kings  ;  and  in 
general  there  is  a  total  want  of  sentiment  or  feeling. 
The  spirit  is  altogether  material.  The  scalds  deal  only 
in  description  of  material  objects,  and  mainly  of  those 
connected  with  warfare  by  sea  or  land.  But  this,  no 
doubt,  belongs  to  the  spirit  of  the  state  of  society 
and  times ;  and  it  will  be  considered  of  sopie  import- 
ance to  know  what  the  ideas  were  which  were  then 
considered  poetical,  and  which  pleased  the  cultivated 
classes  for  whom  the  scalds  composed.  The  English 
public  will  be  able,  in  some  degree,  from  these  trans- 
lations, to  judge  what  the  poetry  of  the  scalds  was, — 
what  may  have  been  its  real  poetic  merit :  of  the  labour 
and  difficulty  of  presenting  these  pieces  to  the  public, 
even  in  this  imperfect  way,  none  can  jtidge  but  those 
who  will  try  the  same  task. 


THE 


HEIMSKRINGLA; 


OR, 


CHRONICLE  OF  THE  KINGS  OF  NORWAY. 


PREFACE  OF  SNORRO  STURLESON. 

In  this  book  I  have  had  old  stories  written  down,  as  preface. 
I  have  heard  them  told  by  intelligent  people,  concern- 
ing chiefs  who  have  held  dominion  in  the  northern 
countries,  and  who  spoke  the  Danish  tongue ;  and 
also  concerning  some  of  their  family  branches,  accord- 
ing to  what  has  been  told  me.  Some  of  this  is  found 
in  ancient  family  registers,  in  which  the  pedigrees  of 
kings  and  other  personages  of  high  birth  are  reckoned 
up,  and  part  is  written  down  after  old  songs  and 
ballads  which  our  forefathers  had  for  their  amusement. 
Now,  although  we  cannot  just  say  what  truth  there 
may  be  in  these,  yet  we  have  the  certainty  that  old 
and  wise  men  held  them  to  be  true. 

Thiodolf  hinn  Frode*  of  Huina  was  the  scald  of 


*  Family  surnames  were  not  in  use,  and  scarcely  are  so  now,  among 
the  Northmen.  Olaf  the  son  of  Harald  was  called  Olaf  Haraldson  ; 
Olaf  s  son  Magnus,  Magnus  Olafsson ;  and  his  son  Hakon,  Hakon 
Magnusson  :  thus  dropping  altogether  any  common  name  with  the 
family  predecessors.  This  custom  necessarily  made  the  tracing  of 
family  connection  difficult,  and  dependent  upon  the  memory  of  scalds 
or  others.  The  appellations  Fair-haired,  Black,  &c.,  have  been  given 
to  help  in  distinguishing  individuals  of  the  same  name  from  each  other. 
HinnFrode  the  Wise,  the  Much-knowing, — the  Polyhistorj  as  it  is  trans- 

p  2 


212  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PREFACE.  Harald  Haarfager,  and  he  composed  a  poem  foi 
King  Ragnvald  the  Mountam-high,  which  is  called 
"  Ynglingatal."  This  Ragnvald  was  a  son  of  Olaf 
Geirstad-Alf,  the  brother  of  King  Halfdan  the  Black. 
In  this  poem  thirty  of  his  forefathers  are  reckoned  up, 
and  the  death  and  burial-place  of  each  are  given.  He 
begins  with  Fiolner,  a  son  of  Ingvifrey,  whom  the 
Swedes,  long  after  his  time,  worshipped  and  sacrificed 
to,  and  from  whom  the  race  or  family  of  the  Ynglingers 
take  their  name. 

Eyvind  Skaldaspiller  also  reckoned  up  the  ancestors 
of  Earl  Hakon  the  Great  in  a  poem  called  "  Haleigia- 
tal,"  composed  about  Hakon;  and  therein  he  mentions 
Saeming,  a  son  of  Ingvifrey,  and  he  likewise  tells  of 
the  death  and  funeral  rites  of  each.  The  lives  and 
times  of  the  Yngling  race  were  written  from  Thiodolf 's 
relation  enlarged  afterwards  by  the  accounts  of  intel- 
ligent people. 

As  to  funeral  rites,  the  earliest  age  is  called  the 
Age  of  Burning ;  because  all  the  dead  were  consumed 
by  fire,  and  over  their  ashes  Avere  raised  standing 
stones.*  But  after  Frey  was  buried  under  a  mound 
at  Upsalf,  many  chiefs  raised  mounds,  as  commonly 
as  stones,  to  the  memory  of  their  relatives. 

The  Age  of  Mounds  began  properly  in  Denmark 
after  Dan  MikillatiJ  had  raised  for  himself  a  burial- 
mound,  and  ordered  that  he  should  be  buried  in  it  on 
his  death,  with  his  royal  ornaments  and  armour,  his 
horse  and  saddle-furniture,  and  other  valuable  goods ; 


lated  into  Latin  by  the  antiquarians, — is  applied  to  many  persons  ;  and 
is  possibly  connected  with  the  old  Norman  French  appellative  Prud- 
Prud'homme. 

*  Bauta-Steina  are  in  Scotland  called  standing  stones  by  the  common 
people,  and  we  have  no  other  word  in  our  language  for  those  monu- 
ments. 

•j*  Uppsalir,  the  High  Halls,  was  not  the  present  city  of  Upsal;  but 
Gamle  Upsal,  two  miles  north  of  the  present  Upsal. 

I  Mikill-lati  ~  the  Magnificent. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  213 

and  many  of  his  descendants  followed  his  example,  preface. 
But  the  burning  of  the  dead  continued,  long  after 
that  time,  to  be  the  custom  of  the  Swedes  and  North- 
men. Iceland  was  occupied  in  the  time  that  Harald 
Haarfager  was  the  King  of  Norway.  There  were 
scalds  in  Harald' s  court  whose  poems  the  people  know 
by  heart  even  at  the  present  day,  together  with  all 
the  songs  about  the  kings  who  have  ruled  in  Norway 
since  his  time ;  and  we  rest  the  foundations  of  our 
story  principally  upon  the  songs  which  were  sung  in  the 
presence  of  the  chiefs  themselves  or  of  their  sons,  and 
take  all  to  be  true  that  is  found  in  such  poems  about 
their  feats  and  battles :  for  although  it  be  the  fashion 
with  scalds  to  praise  most  those  in  whose  presence 
they  are  standing,  yet  no  one  would  dare  to.  relate  to  a 
chief  what  he,  and  all  those  who  heard  it,  knew  to  be 
a  false  and  imaginary,  not  a  true  account  of  his  deeds  ; 
because  that  would  be  mockery,  not  praise. 

OF    THE    PRIEST   ARE    HINN   ERODE. 

The  priest  Are  hinn  Frode*  (the  Wise),  a  son  of 
Thorgils  the  son  of  Gellis,  was  the  first  man  in  this 
country  who  wrote  down  in  the  Norse  language  nar- 
ratives of  events  both  old  and  new.  In  the  beginning 
of  his  book  he  wrote  principally  about  the  first  settle- 
ments in  Iceland,  the  laws  and  government,  and  next 
of  the  lagmenf,  and  how  long  each  had  administered 
the  law ;  and  he  reckoned  the  years  at  first,  until  the 
time  when  Christianity  was  introduced  into  Iceland, 
and  afterwards  reckoned  from  that  to  his  own  times. 
To  this  he  added  many  other  subjects,  such  as  the 
lives  and  times  of  kings  of  Norway  and  Denmark, 

*  Are  Frode  was  born  in  Iceland  1067^  and  lived  to  1148,  or  ac- 
cording to  some  1158. 

f  Lagmen  were  district  judges  appointed  by  the  Things  to  administer 
the  law. 

p  3 


214  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

PREFACE,  and  also  of  England ;  besides  accounts  of  great  events 
which  have  taken  place  in  this  country  itself.  His 
narratives  are  considered  by  many  men  of  knowledge 
to  be  the  most  remarkable  of  all ;  because  he  was  a 
man  of  good  understanding,  and  so  old  that  his  birth 
was  as  far  back  as  the  year  after  Harald  Sigurdson's 
fall.  He  wrote,  as  he  himself  says,  the  lives  and  times 
of  the  kings  of  Norway  from  the  report  of  Odd  Kol- 
lason,  a  grandson  of  Hall  of  Sidu.  Odd  again  took 
his  information  from  Thorgeir  AfradskoU,  who  was 
an  intelligent  man,  and  so  old  that  when  Earl  Hakon 
the  Great  was  killed  he  was  dwelling  at  Nidaros  — 
the  same  place  at  which  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson  after- 
wards laid  the  foundation  of  the  merchant  town  of 
Drontheim  which  is  now  there.  The  priest  Are  came, 
when  seven  years  old,  to  Haukadal  to  Hall  Thorarin- 
son,  and  was  there  fourteen  years.  Hall  was  a  man 
of  great  knowledge  and  of  excellent  memory;  and  he 
could  even  remember  being  baptized,  when  he  was 
three  years  old,  by  the  priest  Thangbrand,  the  year 
before  Christianity  was  established  by  law  in  Iceland. 
Are  was  twelve  years  of  age  when  Bishop  Isleif  *  died, 
and  at  his  death  eighty  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
fall  of  Olaf  Tryggvesson.  Hall  died  nine  years  later 
than  Bishop  Isleif,  and  had  attained  nearly  the  age  of 
ninety-four  years.  Hall  had  traded  between  the  two 
countries,  and  had  been  in  partnership  in  trading 
concerns  with  King  Olaf  the  Saint,  by  which  his  cir- 
cumstances had  been  greatly  improved,  and  he  had 
become  well  acquainted  Avith  the  kingdom  of  Norway. 
He  had  iixed  his  residence  in  Haukadal  when  he  was 
thirty  years  of  age,  and  he  had  dwelt  there  nearly 
sixty-four  years,  as  Are  tells  us.  Teit,  a  son  of 
Bishop  Isleif,  was  fostered  in  the  house  of  Hall  of 

*  Isleif  was  the  first  bishop  of  Iceland,  and  had  studied  at  Erfurth 
in  Germany,  and  died  1079 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  215 

Haukadal,  and  afterwards  dwelt  there  himself.  He  preface. 
taught  Are  the  priest,  and  gave  him  information  about 
many  circumstances  which  Are  afterwards  wrote  down. 
Are  also  got  many  a  piece  of  information  from  Thurid, 
a  daughter  of  the  godar*  Snorro.  She  was  wise  and 
intelligent,  and  remembered  her  father  Snorro,  who 
was  nearly  thirty-five  years  of  age  when  Christianity 
was  introduced  into  Iceland,  and  died  a  year  after 
King  Olaf  the  Saint's  fall.f  So  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  Are  the  priest  had  good  information  about  ancient 
events  both  here  in  Iceland,  and  abroad,  being  a  man 
anxious  for  information,  intelligent,  and  of  excellent 
memory,  and  having  besides  learned  much  from  old 
intelligent  persons. 

*  Godars  were  priests  and  judges,  and  an  hereditary  class,  apparently, 
in  Iceland  in  the  heathen  time.  But  we  hear  little  or  nothing  of  such 
a  priesthood  in  Norway  ;  nor  is  it  clear  what  their  civil  jurisdiction 
may  have  been  in  Iceland  compared  to  that  of  the  lagmen,  or  whether 
the  godars,  originally  the  priests  by  hereditary  right,  as  descendants  of 
Odin's  twelve  diars,  were  not  ex  officio  the  lagmen  or  judges  also. 

I  This  happened  1030. 


P   4 


216 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


I. 


SAGA  I. 


Chapter 

I. 
Of  the  si- 
tuation of 
countries. 


YNGLINGA  SAGA, 

OR   THE    STORY    OF   THE    YNGLING   FAMILY  FROM  ODIN  TO 
HALFDAN  THE  BLACK. 

It  is  said  that  the  earth's  circle  which  the  human 
race  inhabits  is  torn  across  into  many  bights,  so  that 
great  seas  run  into  the  land  from  the  out-ocean. 
Thus  it  is  known  that  a  great  sea  goes  in  at  Niorva- 
sund%  and  up  to  the  land  of  Jerusalem.  From  the 
same  sea  a  long  sea-bight  stretches  towards  the  north- 
east, and  is  called  the  Black  Sea,  and  divides  the  three 
parts  of  the  earth ;  of  which  the  eastern  part  is  called 
Asia,  and  the  western  is  called  by  some  Europa,  by 
some  Enea.  Northward  of  the  Black  Sea  lies  Swithiod 
the  Great  f,  or  the  Cold.  The  Great  Sweden  is  rec- 
koned by  some  not  less  than  the  Saracens'  land  J; 
others  compare  it  to  the  Great  Blueland.  §  The 
northern  part  of  Swithiod  lies  uninhabited  on  account 
of  frost  and  cold,  as  likewise  the  southern  parts  of 
Blueland  are  waste  from  the  burning  of  the  sun.  In 
Swithiod  are  many  great  domains,  and  many  wonder- 
ful races  of  men,  and  many  kinds  of  languages. 
There  are  giants,  and  there  are  dwarfs,  and  there  are 
also  blue  men.  There  are  wild  beasts,  and  dreadfully 
large  dragons.  On  the  north  side  of  the  mountains 
which  lie  outside  of  all  inhabited  lands  runs  a  river 


*  Niorvasund,  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar ;  so  called  from  the  first 
Northman  who  sailed  through  them, 

f  Swithiod  the  Great,  or  the  Cold,  is  the  ancient  Sarmatia  ;  and  is 
also  called  Godheim  in  the  mythological  sagas,  or  the  home  of  Odin  and 
the  other  gods.  Swithiod  the  Less  is  Sweden  proper,  and  is  called 
Mannheim,  or  the  home  of  the  kings  the  descendants  of  these  gods. 

:{:  Serkland  means  North  Africa  and  Spain,  and  the  countries  of  the 
Saracens  in  Asia. 

§   Blaland,  the  country  of  the  blacks  in  Africa. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  217 

through  Swithiod,  which  is  properly  called  by  the  saga  i. 
name  of  Tanais,  but  was  formerly  called  Taiiaquisl, 
or  Yanaquisl,  and  which  falls  into  the  ocean  at  the 
Black  Sea.  The  country  of  the  people  on  the  Vana- 
quisl  was  called  Yanaland,  or  Yanaheim  ;  and  the 
river  separates  the  three  parts  of  the  world,  of  which 
the  eastermost  part  is  called  Asia,  and  the  westermost 
Europe. 

The  country  east  of  the  Tanaquisl  in  Asia  was  Chaptek 
called  Asaland,  or  Asaheim,  and  the  chief  city  in  that  of  the 
land  was  called  Asgaard.*  In  that  city  was  a  chief  ^^^^^^^^^^ 
called  Odin,  and  it  was  a  great  place  for  sacrifice.  It 
was  the  custom  there  that  twelve  temple  godarsf 
should  both  direct  the  sacrifices,  and  also  judge  the 
people.  They  were  called  Diars,  or  Drotners,  and  all 
the  people  served  and  obeyed  them.  Odin  was  a  great 
and  very  far-travelled  warrior,  who  conquered  many 
kingdoms,  and  so  successful  was  he  that  in  every 
battle  the  victory  was  on  his  side.  It  was  the  belief 
of  his  people  that  victory  belonged  to  him  in  every 
battle.  It  was  his  custom  when  he  sent  his  men  into 
battle,  or  on  any  expedition,  that  he  first  laid  his 
hand  upon  their  heads,  and  called  down  a  blessing 
upon  them ;  and  then  they  believed  their  undertaking 
would  be  successful.  His  people  also  were  accustomed, 
whenever  they  fell  into  danger  by  land  or  sea,  to  call 
upon  his  name ;  and  they  thought  that  always  they 
got  comfort  and  aid  by  it,  for  where  he  was  they 
thought  help  was  near.  Often  he  went  away  so  long 
that  he  passed  many  seasons  on  his  journeys. 

Odin  had  two  brothers,  the  one  called  Ye,  the  other 

*  Asgaard  is  supposed  by  those  who  look  for  historical  fact  in  mytho- 
logical tales  to  be  the  present  Assor ;  others  that  it  is  Chasgar  in  the 
Caucasian  ridge,  called  by  Strabo  Aspurgum  —  the  Asburg  or  castle  of 
Aas ;  which  word  Aas  still  remains  in  the  northern  languages,  signify- 
ing a  ridge  of  high  land. 

t  Hof  godarsj  whose  office  of  priests  and  judges  continued  hereditary 
in  Scandinavia. 


218 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  I. 

Chapter 
III. 
Of  Odin's 
brothers. 


Chapter 
IV. 
Of  Odin's 
war  with 
the  people 
of  Vana- 
land. 


Vitir,  and  they  governed  the  kingdom  when  he  was 
absent.  It  happened  once  when  0dm  had  gone  to  a 
great  distance,  and  had  been  so  long  away  that  the 
people  of  Asa  doubted  if  he  would  ever  return  home, 
that  his  two  brothers  took  it  upon  themselves  to  divide 
his  estate ;  but  both  of  them  took  his  wife  Frigg  to 
themselves.  Odin  soon  after  returned  home,  and  took 
his  mfe  back. 

Odin  went  out  with  a  great  army  against  the  Yana- 
land  people ;  but  they  were  well  prepared,  and  de- 
fended their  land,  so  that  victory  was  changeable,  and 
they  ravaged  the  lands  of  each  other,  and  did  great 
damage.  They  tired  of  this  at  last,  and  on  both  sides 
appointed  a  meeting  for  establishing  peace,  made  a 
truce,  and  exchanged  hostages.  The  Yanaland  people 
sent  their  best  men,  Niord  the  Kich,  and  his  son  Frey. 
The  people  of  Asaland  sent  a  man  called  HsBuer,  whom 
they  thought  well  suited  to  be  a  chief*,  as  he  was  a 
stout  and  very  handsome  man,  and  with  him  they 
sent  a  man  of  great  understanding  called  Mimir ;  and 
on  the  other  side  the  Yanaland  people  sent  the  wisest 
man  in  their  community,  who  was  called  Quaser. 
Now,  when  Hsener  came  to  Yanaheim  he  was  imme- 
diately made  a  chief,  and  Mimir  came  to  him  with 
good  counsel  on  all  occasions.  But  when  HaBner 
stood  in  the  Things  or  other  meetings,  if  Mimir  was 
not  near  him,  and  any  difficult  matter  was  laid  before 
him,  he  always  answered  in  one  way,  —  "  Now  let 
others  give  their  advice ; "  so  that  the  Yanaland  people 
got  a  suspicion  that  the  Asaland  people  had  deceived 
them  in  the  exchange  of  men.  They  took  Mimir, 
therefore,  and  beheaded  him,  and  sent  his  head  to  the 
Asaland  people.  Odin  took  the  head,  smeared  it  with 
herbs  so  that  it  should  not  rot,  and  sang  incantations 

*  These  exchanges  appear  not  to  have  been  of  hostages,  but  of  chiefs 
to  be  incorporated  with  the  people  to  whom  they  were  sent,  and  thus  to 
preserve  peace. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  219 

over  it.  Thereby  he  gave  it  the  power  that  it  spoke  saga  i. 
to  him,  and  discovered  to  him  many  secrets.  Odin 
placed  Niord  and  Frey  as  priests  of  the  sacrifices,  and 
they  became  deities  of  the  Asaland  people.  Niord' s 
daughter  Freya  was  priestess  of  the  sacrifices,  and 
first  taught  the  Asaland  people  the  magic  art,  as  it 
was  in  use  and  fashion  among  the  Vanaland  people. 
While  Niord  was  with  the  Vanaland  people  he  had 
taken  his  own  sister  in  marriage,  for  that  was  allowed 
by  their  law;  and  their  children  were  Freyn  and  Freya. 
But  among  the  Asaland  people  it  was  forbidden  to 
come  together  in  so  near  relationship. 

There  goes  a  great  mountain  barrier  from  north-    Chapter 
east  to  south-west,  which  divides  the  Greater  Sweden  odin  di- 
from  other  kingdoms.     South  of  this  mountain  ride^e  yi^^^  ^^^^ 

*->  .  ^       kingdom : 

it  is  not  far  to  Turkland,  Avhere  Odin  had  great  pos-  also  con- 
sessions.  But  Odin  having  foreknowledge,  and  Gefio"? 
magic-sight,  knew  that  his  posterity  would  come  to 
settle  and  dwell  in  the  northern  half  of  the  world. 
In  those  times  the  Roman  chiefs  went  wide  around 
in  the  world,  subduing  to  themselves  all  people ;  and 
on  this  account  many  chiefs  fled  from  their  domains. 
Odin  set  his  brothers  Ye  and  Yitir  over  Asgaard ;  and 
he  himself,  with  all  the  gods  and  a  great  many  other 
people,  wandered  out,  first  westward  to  Gardarige"^, 
and  then  south  to  Saxland.f  He  had  many  sons ;  and 
after  having  subdued  an  extensive  kingdom  in  Sax- 
land,  he  set  his  sons  to  defend  the  country.  He  him- 
self went  northwards  to  the  sea,  and  took  up  his 
abode  in  an  island  which  is  called  Odinso  in  Fyen. 
Then  he  sent  Gefion  across  the  sound  to  the  north, 
to  discover  new  countries  ;  and  she  came  to  King 
Gylfe,  who  gave  her  a  ploughgate  of  land.  Then  she 
went  to  Jotunheim,  and  bore  four  sons  to  a  giant, 
and  transformed  them  into  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and  yoked 
them  to  a  plough,  and  broke  out  the  land  into  the 

*  Gardarige  is  Russia.  t  Saxland  is  Germany. 


220 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  I. 


Ch  AFTER 

VI. 

Of  Odin's 
accom- 
plishments. 


ocean  right  opposite  to  Odinso,  which  land  was  called 
Sealand,  where  she  afterwards  settled  and  dwelt. 
Skiold,  a  son  of  Odin,  married  her,  and  they  dwelt 
at  Leidre.*  Where  the  ploughed  land  was  is  a  lake 
or  sea  called  Laage.  In  the  Swedish  land  the  fiords 
of  Laage  correspond  to  the  nesses  in  Sealand.  Brage 
the  Old  sings  thus  of  it :  f  — 

^'  Gefion  from  Gylfe  drove  away, 

To  add  new  land  to  Denmark's  sway,  — 
Blythe  Gefion  ploughing  in  the  smoke 
That  steamed  up  from  her  oxen-yoke  : 
Four  heads,  eight  forehead  stars  had  they, 
Bright  gleaming,  as  she  ploughed  away; 
Dragging  new  lands  from  the  deep  main 
To  join  them  to  the  sweet  isle's  plain." 

Now  when  Odin  heard  that  things  were  in  a  pros- 
perous condition  in  the  land  to  the  east  beside  Gylfe, 
he  went  thither,  and  Gylfe  made  a  peace  with  him, 
for  Gylfe  thought  he  had  no  strength  to  oppose  the 
people  of  Asaland.  Odin  and  Gylfe  had  many  tricks 
and  enchantments  against  each  other;  but  the  Asa- 
land  people  had  always  the  superiority.  Odin  took 
up  his  residence  at  the  Mselare  lake,  at  the  place  now 
called  Sigtun.  There  he  erected  a  large  temple,  where 
there  were  sacrifices  according  to  the  customs  of  the 
Asaland  people.  He  appropriated  to  himself  the  whole 
of  that  district  of  country,  and  called  it  Sigtun.  To 
the  temple  gods  he  gave  also  domains.  Niord  dwelt 
in  Noatun,  Frey  in  Upsal,  Heimdal  in  Himinberg, 
Thor  in  Thrudvong,  Baldor  in  Breidablik;  to  all  of 
them  he  gave  good  domains. 

When  Odin  of  Asaland  came  to  the  north,  and  the 
gods  with  him,  he  began  to  exercise  and  teach  others 
the    arts   which   the    people   long    afterwards    have 

*  Leidre,  or  Hleidre,  or  Leire,  at  the  end  of  Isafiord,  in  the  county 
of  Lithraborg,  is  considered  the  oldest  royal  seat  in  Denmark. 

■j*  This  fable  is  possibly  the  echo  of  some  tradition  of  a  convulsion 
in  which  the  ocean  broke  into  the  Baltic  through  the  Sound  and  Belts, 
or  in  which  the  island  of  Sealand  was  raised  from  the  deep. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  22  L 

practised.  Odin  was  the  cleverest  of  all,  and  from  saga  i. 
him  all  the  others  learned  their  magic  arts ;  and  he 
knew  them  first,  and  knew  many  more  than  other 
people.  But  now,  to  tell  why  he  is  held  in  such  high 
respect,  we  must  mention  various  causes  that  contri- 
buted to  it.  When  sitting  among  his  friends  his 
countenance  was  so  beautiful  and  friendly,  that  the 
spirits  of  ^11  were  exhilarated  by  it ;  but  when  he 
was  in  war  he  appeared  fierce  and  dreadful.  This 
arose  from  his  being  able  to  change  his  colour  and 
form  in  any  way  he  liked.  Another  cause  was,  that 
he  conversed  so  cleverly  and  smoothly,  that  all  who 
heard  were  persuaded.  He  spoke  every  thing  in  rhyme, 
such  as  now  composed,  and  which  we  call  scald-craft. 
He  and  his  temple  gods  were  called  song-smiths,  for 
from  them  came  that  art  of  song  into  the  northern 
countries.  Odin  could  make  his  enemies  in  battle 
blind,  or  deaf,  or  terror-struck,  and  their  weapons  so 
blunt  that  they  could  no  more  cut  than  a  willow 
twig;  on  the  other  hand,  his  men  rushed  forwards 
without  armour,  were  as  mad  as  dogs  or  wolves,  bit 
their  shields,  and  were  strong  as  bears  or  mid  bulls, 
and  killed  people  at  a  blow,  and  neither  fire  nor  iron 
told  upon  them.     These  were  called  Bersaerkers.* 

Odin  could  transform  his  shape :  his  body  would    Chapter 
lie  as  if  dead,  or  asleep  ;  but  then  he  would  be  in  shape  of  odins 
of  a  fish,  or  worm,  or  bird,  or  beast,  and  be  ofi"  in  f^^*^- 
a  twinkling  to  distant  lands  upon  his  own  or  other 
people's  business.     With  words  alone  he  could  quench 
fire,  still  the  ocean  in  tempest,  and  turn  the  wind 
to  any  quarter  he  pleased.     Odin  had  a   ship  which 
Avas  called  Skidbladnir,  in  which  he  sailed  over  wide 

*  Bersaerker  —  so  called  from  ber,  bare  ;  and  serkr^  shirt :  that  is, 
bare  of  any  shirt  of  mail,  as  they  fought  without  armour.  The  Ber- 
saerkers  appear  to  have  gone  into  battle  intoxicated  with  opium,  or  some 
exciting  drug ;  as  the  reaction  after  their  bersaerker  gang  was  over,  and 
their  lassitude  and  exhaustion,  prove  the  use  of  some  stimulant  previously 
to  a  great  excess. 


222  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  I.  seas,  and  which  he  could  roll  up  like  a  cloth. ^  Odin 
carried  with  him  Mimir's  head,  which  told  him  all 
the  news  of  other  countries.  Sometimes  even  he 
called  the  dead  out  of  the  earth,  or  set  himself 
beside  the  burial-mounds  ;  whence  he  was  called 
the  ghost' sovereign,  and  lord  of  the  mounds.  He 
had  two  ravens,  to  whom  he  had  taught  the  speech 
of  man  ;  and  they  flew  far  and  wide  through  the 
land,  and  brought  him  the  news.  In  all  such 
things  he  was  pre-eminently  wise.  He  taught  all 
these  arts  in  Runes,  and  songs  which  are  called 
incantations,  and  therefore  the  Asaland  people  are 
called  incantation- smiths  c  Odin  understood  also  the 
art  in  which  the  greatest  power  is  lodged,  and  which 
he  himself  practised ;  namely,  what  is  called  magic. 
By  means  of  this  he  could  know  beforehand  the  pre- 
destined fate  t  of  men,  or  their  not  yet  completed  lot ; 
and  also  bring  on  the  death,  ill  luck,  or  bad  health  of 
people,  and  take  the  strength  or  wit  from  one  person 
and  give  it  to  another.  But  after  such  witchcraft 
followed  such  weakness  and  anxiety,  that  it  was  not 
thought  respectable  for  men  to  practise  it ;  and  there- 
fore the  priestesses  were  brought  up  in  this  art.  Odin 
knew  finely  where  all  missing  cattle  were  concealed 
under  the  earth,  and  understood  the  songs  by  which 
the  earth,  the  hills,  the  stones,  and  mounds  were 
opened  to  him ;  and  he  bound  those  who  dwell  in 
them  by  the  power  of  his  word,  and  went  in  and  took 
what  he  pleased.  From  these  arts  he  became  very 
celebrated.  His  enemies  dreaded  him  ;  his  friends  put 
their  trust  in  him,  and  relied  on  his  power  and  on 
himself.  He  taught  the  most  of  his  arts  to  his 
priests  of  the  sacrifices,  and  they  came  nearest  to 
himself  in  all  wisdom  and  witch-knowledge.     Many 

*  This  possibly  refers  to  boats  covered  with  skin  or  leather  —  the 
coracle  of  the  Welsh  and  Irish. 

t  Orlog — the  original  law,  the  primaeval  law  fixed  from  the  begin- 
ning. It  is  curious  that  this  idea  of  a  predestination  existed  in  the 
religion  of  Odin. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  223 

others,  however,  occupied  themselves  much  with  it;  saga  i. 
and  from  that  time  witchcraft  spread  far  and  wide, 
and  continued  long.  People  sacrificed  to  Odin,  and 
the  twelve  chiefs  from  Asaland,  —  called  them  their 
gods,  and  believed  in  them  long  after.  From  Odin's 
name  came  the  name  Audun,  which  people  gave  to 
his  sons  ;  and  from  Thor's  name  comes  Thorer,  also 
Thorarinn  ;  and  also  it  is  sometimes  augmented  by 
other  additions,  as  Steenthor,  or  Hafthor,  and  many 
kinds  of  alterations. 

Odin  established  the  same  law  in  his  land  that  had  Chapter 
been  in  force  in  Asaland.  Thus  he  established  by  of  odin's 
law  that  all  dead  men  should  be  burned,  and  their  lawgiving. 
property  laid  with  them  upon  the  pile,  and  the  ashes 
be  cast  into  the  sea  or  buried  in  the  earth.  Thus, 
said  he,  every  one  will  come  to  Valhalla  with  the 
riches  he  had  with  him  upon  the  pile  ;  and  he  would 
also  enjoy  whatever  he  himself  had  buried  in  the 
earth.  For  men  of  consequence  a  mound  should  be 
raised  to  their  memory,  and  for  all  other  warriors  who 
had  been  distinguished  for  manhood  a  standing  stone  ; 
which  custom  remained  long  after  Odin's  time.  To- 
wards winter  there  should  be  blood- sacrifice  for  a 
good  year,  and  in  the  middle  of  winter  for  a  good 
crop ;  and  the  third  sacrifice  should  be  in  summer, 
for  victory  in  battle.  Over  all  Sweden  the  people 
paid  Odin  a  scatt  or  tax — so  much  on  each  head;  but 
he  had  to  defend  the  country  from  enemy  or  dis- 
turbance, and  pay  the  expense  of  the  sacrifice  feasts 
towards  winter  for  a  good  year. 

Niord  took  a  wife  called  Skada ;  but  she  would  not    Chapter 

.  T  X 

live  with  him,  but  married  afterwards  Odin,  and  had  of  Niord's 
many  sons  by  him,  of  whom  one  was  called  Saeming ;  marriage, 
and  of  this  Eyvind  Skaldaspiller  sings  thus :  — 

"  To  Asa's  son  Queen  Skada  bore 

Sgeming,  who  dyed  his  shield  in  gore,  — 
The  giant- queen  of  rock  and  snow, 
Who  loves  to  dwell  on  earth  below^ 


224 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  I. 


Chapter 
X. 
Of  Odin's 
death. 


Chapter 

XI. 

Of  Niord. 


The  iron  pine-tree's  daughter,  she 
Sprung  from  the  rocks  that  rib  the  sea. 
To  Odin  bore  full  many  a  son. 
Heroes  of  many  a  battle  won." 

To  Seeming  Earl  Hakon  the  Great  reckoned  up  his 
pedigree.  This  Sweden  they  called  Mannheim,  but 
the  Great  Sweden  they  called  Godheim  ;  and  of 
Godheim  great  wonders  and  novelties  were  related. 

Odin  died  in  his  bed  in  Sweden ;  and  when  he  was 
near  his  death  he  made  himself  be  marked  with  the 
point  of  a  spear  *,  and  said  he  was  going  to  Godheim, 
and  would  give  a  welcome  there  to  all  his  friends,  and 
all  brave  warriors  should  be  dedicated  to  him ;  and 
the  Swedes  believed  that  he  was  gone  to  the  ancient 
Asgaard,  and  would  live  there  eternally.  Then  began 
the  belief  in  Odin,  and  the  calling  upon  him.  The 
Swedes  believed  that  he  often  showed  himself  to  them 
before  any  great  battle.  To  some  he  gave  victory ; 
others  he  invited  to  himself;  and  they  reckoned  both 
of  these  to  be  well  off  in  their  fate.  Odin  was  burnt, 
and  at  his  pile  there  was  great  splendour.  It  was 
their  faith,  that  the  higher  the  smoke  arose  in  the 
air,  the  higher  he  would  be  raised  whose  pile  it  was ; 
and  the  richer  he  would  be,  the  more  property  that 
was  consumed  with  him. 

Niord  of  Noatun  was  then  the  sole  sovereign  of  the 
Swedes;  and  he  continued  the  sacrifices,  and  was 
called  the  drot  or  sovereign  by  the  Swedes,  and  he  re- 
ceived scatt  and  gifts  from  them.  In  his  days  were  peace 
and  plenty,  and  such  good  years,  in  all  respects,  that 
the  Swedes  believed  Niord  ruled  over  the  growth  of 
seasons  and  the  prosperity  of  the  people.    In  his  time 


*  The  meaning  seems  to  be,  that  he  was  marked  with  the  sign  of 
the  head  of  a  spear;  that  is,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  The  sign  of 
Thor's  hammer,  viz.  the  head  of  a  battle-axe  or  halberd,  was  said  to  be 
used  as  the  sign  of  the  cross  was  after  Christianity  was  introduced  ;  it 
was  a  kind  of  consecration  by  a  holy  sign.  But  this  is  probably  a 
pious  interpolation. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  225 

all  the  diars  or  gods  died,  and  blood-sacrifices  were    saga  i. 
made  for  them.     Niord  died  on  the  bed  of  sickness, 
and  before  he  died  made  himself  be  marked  for  Odin 
with  the  spear-point.     The  Swedes  burned  him,  and 
all  wept  over  his  grave-mound. 

Freyr  took  the  kingdom  after  Niort,  and  was  called  Chapter 
drot  by  the  Swedes,  and  they  paid  taxes  to  him.  He  Freyr's 
was,  like  his  father,  fortunate  in  friends  and  in  good  ^^^*''' 
seasons.  Freyr  built  a  great  temple  at  Upsal,  made 
it  his  chief  seat,  and  gave  it  all  his  taxes,  his  land, 
and  goods.  Then  began  the  Upsal  domains  *,  which 
have  remained  ever  since.  Then  began,  in  his  days, 
the  Frode-peace ;  and  then  there  were  good  seasons 
in  all  the  land,  which  the  Swedes  ascribed  to  Freyr, 
so  that  he  was  more  worshipped  than  the  other  gods, 
as  the  people  became  much  richer  in  his  days  by 
reason  of  the  peace  and  good  seasons.  His  wife  was 
called  Gerder,  daughter  of  Gymis,  and  their  son  was 
called  Fiolner.  Freyr  was  called  by  another  name, 
Yngve ;  and  this  name  Yngve  was  considered  long 
after  in  his  race  as  a  name  of  honour,  so  that  his 
descendants  have  since  been  called  Ynglingers.  Freyr 
fell  into  a  sickness ;  and  as  his  illness  took  the  upper 
hand,  his  men  took  the  plan  of  letting  few  approach 
him.  In  the  meantime  they  raised  a  great  mound, 
in  which  they  placed  a  door  with  three  holes  in  it. 
Now  when  Freyr  died  they  bore  him  secretly  into  the 
mound,  but  told  the  Swedes  he  was  alive ;  and  they 
kept  watch  over  him  for  three  years.  They  brought 
all  the  taxes  into  the  mound,  and  through  the  one 
hole  they  put  in  the  gold,  through  the  other  the 
silver,  and  through  the  third  the  copper  money  that 
was  paid.     Peace  and  good  seasons  continued. 

*  The  Upsal  domains  were  certain  estates  for  the  support  of  the 
sovereign,  and  of  the  temple  and  rites  of  worship ;  which  after  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  remained  with  the  crown,  and  constituted 
a  large  portion  of  the  crown  property  in  Sweden. 

VOL.  I.  Q 


226 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  I. 

Chapter 
XIII. 
Of  Freya 
and  her 
daughters. 


Chapter 

XIV. 
Of  King 
Fiolner's 
death. 


Freya  alone  remained  of  the  gods,  and  she  became 
on  this  account  so  celebrated  that  all  women  of  dis- 
tinction were  called  by  her  name,  whence  they  now 
have  the  title  Frue ;  so  that  every  woman  is  called 
frue,  or  mistress  over  her  property,  and  the  wife  is 
called  the  house-frue.  Freya  continued  the  blood- 
sacrifices.  Freya  had  also  many  other  names.  Her 
husband  was  called  Oder,  and  her  daughters  Hnoss 
and  Gerseme.  They  were  so  very  beautiful,  that 
afterwards  the  most  precious  jewels  were  called  by 
their  names. 

When  it  became  kno^vn  to  the  Swedes  that  Freyr 
was  dead,  and  yet  peace  and  good  seasons  continued, 
they  believed  that  it  must  be  so  as  long  as  Freyr  re- 
mained in  Sweden  ;  and  therefore  they  would  not  burn 
his  remains,  but  called  him  the  god  of  this  world, 
and  afterwards  offered  continually  blood-sacrifices  to 
him,  principally  for  peace  and  good  seasons. 

Fiolner,  Yngve  Frey^s  son,  ruled  thereafter  over 
the  Swedes  and  the  Upsal  domains.  He  was  poAverful, 
and  lucky  in  seasons  and  in  holding  the  peace.  Frid- 
frode  ruled  then  in  Hleidre,  and  between  them  there 
was  great  friendship  and  visiting.  Once  when  Fiolner 
went  to  Frode  in  Sealand,  a  great  feast  was  prepared 
for  him,  and  invitations  to  it  were  sent  all  over  the 
country.  Frode  had  a  large  house,  in  which  there 
was  a  great  vessel  many  ells  high,  and  put  together 
of  great  pieces  of  timber ;  and  this  vessel  stood  in  a 
lower  room.  Above  it  was  a  loft,  in  the  floor  of  which 
was  an  opening  through  which  liquor  was  poured 
into  this  vessel.  The  vessel  was  full  of  mead,  which 
was  excessively  strong.  In  the  evening  Fiolner,  with 
his  attendants,  was  taken  into  the  adjoining  loft  to 
sleep.  In  the  night  he  went  out  to  the  gallery 
outside  to  seek  the  privy  of  the  house,  and  he  was 
very  sleepy,  and  exceedingly  drunk.  As  he  came 
back    to    his    room    he    went    along   the    gallery    to 


d 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  227 

the  door  of  another  loft,  went  into  it,  and  his  foot     saga  i. 
slipping  he  fell   into  the  vessel   of  mead,  and  was 
drowned.     So  says  Thiodolf  of  Huine :  — 

^'  In  Frode's  hall  the  fearful  word. 

The  death-foreboding  sound  was  heard : 
The  cry  of  fey*  denouncmg  doom, 
Was  heard  at  night  in  Frode's  home. 
And  when  brave  Frode  came,  he  found 
Swithiod's  dark  chief,  Fiolner,  drowned. 
In  Frode's  mansion  drowned  was  he. 
Drowned  in  a  waveless,  windless  sea." 

Sweo^der  took  the  kine^dom  after  his  father,  and  he    Chapter 
made  a  solemn  vow  to  seek  Godheim  and  Odin.     He  of  Sweg- 
went  with  twelve  men  through  the  world,  and  came 
to  Turkland,  and  the  Great  Sweden,  where  he  found 
many  of  his  connections.     He  was  five  years  on  this 
journey ;  and  when  he  returned  home  to  Sweden  he 
remained  there  for  some  time.     He  had  2:ot  a  wife  in 
Vanheim,  who  was  called  Yana,   and  their  son  was 
Vanland.     Swegder  went  out  afterwards  to  seek  again 
for  Godheim,   and  came  to  a  mansion  on  the  east 
side  of  Sweden  called  Stein,  where  there  was  a  stone 
as  big  as  a  large  house.     In  the  evening  after  sun- 
set, as  Swegder  was  going  from  the  drinking-table  to 
his  sleeping-room,  he  cast  his  eye  upon  the  stone,  and 
saw  that  a  dwarf  was  sitting  under  it.     Swegder  and 
his  man  were  very  drunk,  and  they  ran  towards  the 
stone.     The  dwarf  stood  in  the  door,  and  called  to 
Swegder,  and  told  him  to  come  in,  and  he  should  see 
Odin.     Swegder  ran  into  the  stone,  which  instantly 
closed  behind  him,  and  Swegder  never  came  back. 
Thiodolf  of  Huine  tells  of  this :  — 

*  Fey,  feig,  is  used  in  the  same  sense  in  the  northern  languages  as 
in  Scotland,  denoting  the  acts  or  words  or  sounds  preceding,  and  sup- 
posed to  be  portending,  a  sudden  death.  "  The  ganger  is  fey,"  in  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  novel  "  Guy  Mannering,"  is  an  expression  seized  by  that 
great  painter  of  Scottish  life  from  the  common  people,  and  applied  in 
its  true  meaning. 

Q  2 


228  CHRONICLE    OF   THK 

SAGA  I.  ''  By  Diurnir's*  elfin  race. 

Who  haunt  the  cliffs  and  shun  day's  face;, 

The  valiant  Swegdir  was  deceived, 

The  elf's  false  words  the  king  believed. 

The  dauntless  hero  rushing  on. 

Passed  through  the  yawning  mouth  of  stone  : 

It  yawned — it  shut — the  hero  fell. 

In  Saekmime's  f  hall,  where  giants  dwell." 

Chapter        Yaiiland,  Swes^der^s  son,  succeeded  his  father,  and 

XVI  . 

Of  Van-     ruled  over  the  Upsal  domain.     He  was  a  great  war- 
land,  rioY,  and  went  far  around  in  different  lands.     Once 

owegder  s  i  i  •  •  •  .  o     ♦        i 

son.  he  took  up  his  winter  abode  in  Finland  with  Snio  the 

Old,  and  got  his  daughter  Drisa  in  marriage ;  but  in 
spring  he  set  out  leaving  Drisa  behind,  and  although 
he  had  promised  to  return  within  three  years  he  did 
not  come  back  for  ten.  Then  Drisa  sent  a  message 
to  the  witch  Hulda;  and  sent  Yisbur,  her  son  by 
Vanland,  to  Sweden.  Drisa  bribed  the  witch-wife 
Hulda,  either  that  she  should  bewitch  Vanland  to 
return  to  Finland,  or  kill  him.  When  this  witch- 
work  was  going  on  Vanland  was  at  Upsal,  and  a 
great  desire  came  over  him  to  go  to  Finland ;  but  his 
friends  and  counsellors  advised  him  against  it,  and 
said  the  mtchcraft  of  the  Fin  people  showed  itself  in 
this  desire  of  his  to  go  there.  He  then  became  very 
drowsy,  and  laid  himself  down  to  sleep  ;  but  when  he 
had  slept  but  a  little  while,  he  cried  out,  saying, 
"  Mara  J  was  treading  upon  him."  His  men  hastened 
to  him  to  help  him  ;  but  when  they  took  hold  of  his 
head  she  trod  on  his  legs,  and  when  they  laid  hold  of 
his  legs  she  pressed  upon  his  head ;  and  it  was  his 
death.  The  Swedes  took  his  body  and  burnt  it  at  a 
river  called  Skytaa,  where  a  standing  stone  was  raised 
over  him.     Thus  says  Thiodolf :  — 

*  Diurnir,  the  second  chief  of  the  dwarfs  or  elves,  in  the  Scan- 
dinavian mythology. 

t  Ssekmimer  —  the  giant  of  the  rocks,  whom  Odin  visited  under 
the  assumed  name  of  Ividur. 

if  Mara,  the  nightmare.  We  retain  the  name,  and  the  notion  that 
it  is  a  demon  riding  or  treading  on  the  sleeper. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  229 

"  And  Vanland,  in  a  fatal  hour,  sag^i. 

Was  dragg'd  by  Grimhild's  daughter's  power. 
The  witch-wife's^  to  the  dwelling-place 
Where  men  meet  Odin  face  to  face. 
Trampled  to  deaths  to  Skyta's  shore 
The  corpse  his  faithful  followers  bore  ; 
And  there  they  burnt,  with  heavy  hearts. 
The  good  chief  killed  by  witchcraft's  arts." 

Visbur  inherited  after  his  father  Vanland.  He  ^xvn^ 
married  the  daughter  of  Aude  the  Kich,  and  gave  ofvisbur's 
her  as  her  bride-gift  three  hirge  farms,  and  a  gold 
ornament.  They  had  two  sons,  Gisle  and  Ond ;  but 
Yisbur  left  her  and  took  another  wife,  whereupon  she 
went  home  to  her  father  with  her  two  sons.  Yisbur 
had  a  son  who  was  called  Domald,  and  his  stepmother 
used  witchcraft  to  give  him  ill-luck.  Now,  when 
Yisbur' s  sons  were,  the  one  twelve,  the  other  thirteen 
years  of  age,  they  went  to  their  father's  place,  and 
desired  to  have  their  mother's  dower ;  but  he  would 
not  deliver  it  to  them.  Then  they  said  that  the  gold 
ornament  should  be  the  death  of  the  best  man  in  all 
his  race ;  and  they  returned  home.  Then  they  began 
again  with  enchantments  and  witchcraft,  to  try  if  they 
could  destroy  their  father.  The  sorceress  Hulda  said 
that  by  witchcraft  she  could  bring  it  about  by  this 
means,  that  a  murderer  of  his  own  kin  should  never 
be  wanting  in  the  Yngling  race ;  and  they  agreed  to 
have  it  so.  Thereafter  they  collected  men,  came  un- 
expectedly in  the  night  on  Yisbur,  and  burned  him 
in  his  house.     So  sings  Thiodolf:  — 

"  Have  the  fire-dogs'  fierce  tongues  yelling 
Lapt  Visbur's  blood  on  his  own  hearth  ? 
Have  the  flames  consumed  the  dwelling 
Of  the  hero's  soul  on  earth  ? 
Madly  ye  acted,  who  set  free 
The  forest  foe,  red  fire,  night  thief, 
Fell  brother  of  the  raging  sea  *, 
Against  your  father  and  your  chief." 


*   Forniot  was   father  of  Loge,  ^gir,  and  Kara ;  or  Fire,  the  Sea, 
and  the  Wind  ;  and  hence  fire  is  called  by  the  scalds  the  brother  of  the 

Q   3 


230 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 

Chapter 
XVIII. 

Of  Do- 

mald's 

death. 


Chapter 
XIX. 

Of  Domar's 
death. 


Chapter 

XX. 
Of  Dyg- 
gve's  death. 


Domald  took  the  heritage  after  his  father  Visbur, 
and  ruled  over  the  land.  As  in  his  time  there  was 
great  famine  and  distress,  the  Swedes  made  great 
offerings  of  sacrifice  at  Upsal.  The  first  autumn  they 
sacrificed  oxen,  but  the  succeeding  season  was  not 
improved  by  it.  The  follomng  autumn  they  sacri- 
ficed men,  but  the  succeeding  year  was  rather  worse. 
The  third  autumn,  when  the  ofi'er  of  sacrifices  should 
begin,  a  great  multitude  of  Swedes  came  to  Upsal ; 
and  now  the  chiefs  held  consultations  with  each  other, 
and  all  agreed  that  the  times  of  scarcity  were  on 
account  of  their  king  Domald,  and  they  resolved  to 
offer  him  for  good  seasons,  and  to  assault  and  kill 
him,  and  sprinkle  the  altar  of  the  gods  with  his  blood. 
And  they  did  so.     Thiodolf  tells  of  this :  — 

*^  It  has  happened  oft  ere  now. 
That  foeman's  weapon  has  laid  low 
The  crowned  head,  where  battle  plain 
Was  miry  red  with  the  blood-rain. 
But  Domald  dies  by  bloody  arms. 
Raised  not  by  foes  in  war's  alarms, — 
Raised  by  his  Swedish  liegeman's  hand. 
To  bring  good  seasons  to  the  land." 

Domald' s  son,  called  Domar,  next  ruled  over  the 
land.  He  reigned  long,  and  in  his  days  were  good 
seasons  and  peace.  Nothing  is  told  of  him  but  that 
he  died  in  his  bed  in  Upsal,  and  was  transported  to 
the  Fyrisvold,  where  his  body  was  burned  on  the 
river-bank,  and  where  his  standing  stone  still  remains. 
So  says  Thiodolf:  — 

^'  I  have  asked  wise  men  to  tell 
Where  Domar  rests,  and  they  knew  well. 
Domar,  on  Fyrie's  wide-spread  ground, 
Was  burned,  and  laid  on  Ingve's  mound." 

Dyggve  was  the  name  of  his  son,  who  succeeded 
him  in  ruling  the  land ;  and  about  him  nothing  is  said 

sea.  Loge  is  a  word  still  retained  in  the  northern  parts  of  Scotland  to 
signify  fire.  The  lowe,  for  the  blaze  or  flame  of  fire,  is  indeed  in 
general  use  in  Scotland. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  231 

but  that  he  died   in  his  bed.     Thiodolf  tells  of  it     saga  t. 
thus :  — 

''  Dyggve  the  Brave_,  the  mighty  king, 
It  is  110  hidden  secret  thing. 
Has  gone  to  meet  a  royal  mate. 
Riding  upon  the  horse  of  Fate. 
For  Loke's  daughter*  in  her  house 
Of  Ingve's  race  would  have  a  spouse  ; 
Therefore  the  fell-one  snatched  away 
Brave  Dyggve  from  the  light  of  day." 

Dyggve's  mother  was  Drott,  a  daughter  of  King 
Dauj),  the  son  of  Rig,  who  was  first  called  king  in  the 
Danish  tongue.  His  descendants  always  afterwards 
considered  the  title  of  king  the  title  of  highest  dignity. 
Dyggve  was  the  first  of  his  family  called  king,  for 
his  predecessors  had  been  called  Drotti,  and  their 
wives  Drottningr,  and  their  court  Drotr.  Each  of 
their  race  was  called  Yngva,  or  Ynguni,  and  the  whole 
race  together  Ynglinger.f  The  Queen  Drot  was  a 
sister  of  King  Dan  .Mikillati,  from  whom  Denmark 
took  its  name. 

King  Dyggve's  son,  called  Dag,  succeeded  to  him.     Chapter 
and  was  so  wise  a  man  that  he  understood  the  Ian-  of^^J 
guage  of  birds.     He  had  a  sparrow  which  told  him  the  wise, 
much  news,  and  flew  to  diflerent  countries.     Once 
the  sparrow  flew  to  Reidgotaland  J,  to  a  farm  called 

*  Noke's  or  Loke's  (the  evil  principle)  daughter  was  Hael,  who  re- 
ceived in  the  under  world  those  who,  not  having  fallen  in  battle,  were 
not  received  by  Odin  in  Valhalla.  Our  word  ''  hell  "  is  derived  from 
the  name  of  this  goddess  apparently. 

f  Is  it  possible  that  the  Ingaevones  of  Tacitus  can  have  any  relation 
to  this  tribe  of  Ynguni  or  Ingve  ?  The  passage,  cap.  2.,  '^  De  Moribus 
Germanigp,"  has  a  remarkable  coincidence  with  the  saga  story  of  these 
Northmen.  '^Celebrant  carminibus  antiquis  (quod  unum  apud  illos 
memoriae  et  annalium  genus  est)  Tuisconem  Deum,  terra  editum,  et 
filium  Mannum,  originem  gentis  conditoresque.  Manno  tres  filios  e 
quorum  nominibus  proximi  oceano  Ingaevones."  Here  is  a  tribe  of 
Ingaeve  deriving  their  origin  from  the  gods,  like  the  Ingve  or  Inguni 
of  the  saga. 

J  Reidgotaland  is  understood  to  mean  Jutland,  and  Eygotaland  the 
islands  inhabited  by  the  same  people.  It  is  by  no  means  clear  that  these 
appellations  of   Gotlanders  on  the   Baltic   coast  have  any   connection 

Q  4 


232  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SAGA  I.  Yarva,  where  he  flew  into  the  peasant's  corn-field 
and  took  his  grain.  The  peasant  came  up,  took  a 
stone,  and  killed  the  sparrow.  King  Dag  was  ill 
pleased  that  the  sparrow  did  not  come  home ;  and  as 
he,  in  a  sacrifice  of  expiation,  inquired  after  the  spar- 
row, he  got  the  answer  that  it  was  killed  at  Yarva. 
Thereupon  he  ordered  a  great  army,  and  went  to 
Gothland ;  and  when  he  came  to  Yarva  he  landed  with 
his  men  and  plundered,  and  the  people  fled  away 
before  him.  King  Dag  returned  in  the  evening  to 
his  ships,  after  having  killed  many  people  and  taken 
many  prisoners.  As  they  were  going  across  a  river 
at  a  place  called  Skiotan's  Ford,  a  labouring  thrall 
came  running  to  the  river-side,  and  threw  a  hay-fork 
into  their  troop.  It  struck  the  king  on  the  head,  so 
that  he  fell  instantly  from  his  horse  and  died,  and  his 
men  went  back  to  Sweden.  In  those  times  the  chief 
who  ravaged  a  country  was  called  Gram"^,  and  the 
men-at-arms  under  him  Gramr.  Thiodolf  sings  of  it 
thus :  — 

*^  What  news  is  this  that  the  king's  men. 
Flying  eastward  through  the  glen. 
Report?      That  Dag  the  Brave,  whose  name 
Is  sounded  far  and  wide  by  Fame, — 
That  Dag,  who  knew  so  well  to  wield 
The  battle-axe  in  bloody  field. 
Where  brave  men  meet,  no  more  will  head 
The  brave  —  that  mighty  Dag  is  dead  ! 

"  Varva  was  wasted  with  the  sword. 
And  vengeance  taken  for  the  bird,  — 
The  little  bird  that  used  to  bring 
News  to  the  ear  of  the  great  king. 


with  the  great  population  called  the  Goths,  unless  a  fortuitous  similarity 
of  name  and  a  common  origin.  That  the  vast  hordes  called  Goths 
who  overwhelmed  Italy  came  from  these  Gothlands,  it  is  inconsistent 
with  common  sense  to  suppose.  The  whole  coasts  of  the  Baltic  could 
furnish  no  such  masses  of  armed  men  now  even,  when  they  furnish 
more  subsistence  for  man. 

*  Gram  is  equivalent  to  grim,  fierce. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  233 

Varva  was  ravaged,  and  the  strife  saga  i. 

Was  ended  when  the  monarch's  Hfe  *""" 

Was  ended  too — the  great  Dag  fell 
By  the  hay-fork  of  a  base  thrall ! " 

Agne  was  the  name  of  Dag's  son,  who  was  king  Chapter 
after  him, — a  powerful  and  celebrated  man,  expert,  and  of  Agne. 
exercised  in  all  feats.  It  happened  one  summer  that 
King  Agne  went  with  his  army  to  Finland,  and  landed 
and  marauded.  The  Finland  people  gathered  a  large 
army,  and  proceeded  to  the  strife  under  a  chief  called 
Froste.  There  was  a  great  battle,  in  which  King 
Agne  gained  the  victory,  and  Froste  fell  there  with 
a  great  many  of  his  people.  King  Agne  proceeded 
with  armed  hand  through  Finland,  subdued  it,  and 
made  enormous  booty.  He  took  Froste' s  daughter 
Skialf,  and  her  brother  Loge,  and  carried  them  along 
with  him.  When  he  sailed  from  the  east  he  came  to 
land  at  Stokkasund*,  and  put  up  his  tent  on  the  flat 
side  of  the  river,  where  then  there  was  a  wood.  King 
Agne  had  at  the  time  the  gold  ornament  which  had 
belonged  to  Yisbur.  He  now  married  Skialf,  and  she 
begged  him  to  make  a  burial  feast  in  honour  of  her 
father.  He  invited  a  great  many  guests,  and  made  a 
great  feast.  He  had  become  very  celebrated  by  his 
expedition,  and  there  was  a  great  drinking  match. 
Now  when  King  Dag  had  got  drunk,  Skialf  bade 
him  take  care  of  his  gold  ornament  which  he  had 
about  his  neck;  therefore  he  took  hold  of  the  orna- 
ment, and  bound  it  fast  about  his  neck  before  he  went 
to  sleep.  The  land-tent  stood  at  the  wood  side,  and  a 
high  tree  over  the  tent  protected  it  against  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  Now  when  King  Agne  was  asleep,  Skialf 
took  a  noose,  and  fastened  it  under  the  ornament. 
Thereupon  her  men  threw  down  the  tent-poles,  cast 
the  loop  of  the  noose  up  in  the  branches  of  the  tree, 

*   Stokksund   is   the   sound   or   stream    at   Stockholm,   between   the 
Mselare  lake  and  the  sea. 


234  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SAGA  I.  and  hauled  upon  it,  so  that  the  king  was  hanged  close 
under  the  branches  and  died ;  and  Skialf  mth  her 
men  ran  down  to  their  ships,  and  rowed  away.  King 
Agne  was  buried  upon  the  spot,  which  was  afterwards 
called  Agneiit ;  and  it  lies  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Taurun,  and  west  of  Stokksund.  Thiodolf  speaks  of 
it  thus :  — 

"  How  do  ye  like  the  high-souled  maid, 
Who,  with  the  grim  Fate-goddess'  aid. 
Avenged  her  sire  ?  —  made  Svithiod's  king 
Through  air  in  golden  halter  swing  ? 
How  do  ye  like  her,  Agne's  men  ? 
Think  ye  that  any  chief  again 
Will  court  the  fate  your  chief  befell. 
To  ride  on  wooden  horse  to  hell  ?" 

Chapter        Thc  SOUS  of  As^ne  wcrc  Called  Alric  and  Eric,  and 

"WTTT 

Of  Alric  were  kings  together  after  him.  They  were  powerful 
and  Eric,  men,  great  warriors,  and  expert  at  all  feats  of  arms.  It 
was  their  custom  to  ride  and  break  in  horses  both  to 
walk  and  to  gallop,  which  nobody  understood  so  well 
as  they ;  and  they  vied  with  each  other  who  could  ride 
best,  and  keep  the  best  horses.  It  happened  one  day 
that  both  the  brothers  rode  out  together  alone,  and  at 
a  distance  from  their  folloAvers,  with  their  best  horses, 
and  rode  on  to  a  field ;  but  never  came  back.  The 
people  at  last  went  out  to  look  after  them,  and  they 
were  both  found  dead  with  their  heads  crushed.  As 
they  had  no  weapons,  except  it  might  be  their  horses' 
bridles,  people  believed  that  they  had  killed  each 
otlier  with  them.     So  says  Thiodolf  :  — 

"  Alric  fell,  by  Eric  slain, 
Eric's  life-blood  dyed  the  plain. 
Brother  fell  by  brother's  hand  ; 
And  they  tell  it  in  the  land. 
That  they  worked  the  wicked  deed 
With  the  sharp  bits  that  guide  the  steed. 
Shall  it  be  said  of  Frey's  brave  sons. 
The  kingly  race,  the  noble  ones, 
That  they  have  fought  in  deadly  battle 
With  the  head-gear  of  their  cattle  ?  " 


KINGS   OF   NOBWAY. 


235 


Alric's  sons,  Yngve  and  Alf,  then  succeeded  to  the 


SAGA  I. 


kingly  power  in  Sweden.  Yngve  was  a  great  warrior,  Chapteu 
always  victorious  ;  handsome,  expert  in  all  exercises,  of  Yngve 
strong  and  very  sharp  in  battle,  generous  and  full  of  *"^  ^^*'- 
mirth;  so  that  he  was  both  renowned  and  beloved. 
Alf  was  a  silent,  harsh,  unfriendly  man,  and  sat  at 
home  in  the  land,  and  never  went  out  on  war  expe- 
ditions. His  mother  was  called  Dagrid,  a  daughter 
of  King  Dag  the  Great,  from  whom  the  family  of 
Daglingers  are  descended.  King  Alf  had  a  wife 
named  Bera,  who  was  the  most  agreeable  of  women, 
very  brisk  and  gay.  One  autumn  Yngve,  Alric's  son, 
had  arrived  at  Upsal  from  a  viking  cruise  by  which 
he  was  become  very  celebrated.  He  often  sat  long  in 
the  evening  at  the  drinking  table  ;  but  Alf  went  will- 
ingly to  bed  very  early.  Queen  Bera  sat  often  till 
late  in  the  evening,  and  she  and  Ynge  conversed  to- 
gether for  their  amusement;  but  Alf  soon  told  her 
that  she  should  not  sit  up  so  late  in  the  evening,  but 
should  go  first  to  bed,  so  as  not  to  waken  him.  She 
replied,  that  happy  would  be  the  woman  who  had 
Yngve  instead  of  Alf  for  her  husband  ;  and  as  she 
often  repeated  the  same,  he  became  very  angry.  One 
evening  Alf  went  into  the  hall,  where  Yngve  and  Bera 
sat  on  the  high  seat  speaking  to  each  other.  Yngve 
had  a  short  sword  upon  his  knees,  and  the  guests 
were  so  drunk  that  they  did  not  observe  the  king's 
coming  in.  King  Alf  went  straight  to  the  high  seat, 
drew  a  sword  from  under  his  cloak,  and  pierced  his 
brother  Yngve  through  and  through.  Yngve  leaped 
up,  drew  his  short  sword,  and  gave  Alf  his  death- 
wound  ;  so  that  both  fell  dead  on  the  floor.  Alf  and 
Yngve  were  buried  under  mounds  in  Fyrisvold.*  Thus 
tells  Thiodolf  of  it :  — 


*   Fyrisvellir  are  the  plains  around  Upsal-water,  on  which  there  are 
many  mounds  or  tumuh. 


236  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 


I  tell  you  of  a  horrid  thing, 
A  deed  of  dreadful  note  I  sing,  — 
How  by  false  Bera,  wicked  queen. 
The  murderous  brother-hands  were  seen 
Each  raised  against  a  brother's  hfe  ; 
How  wretched  Alf  with  bloody  knife 
Gored  Ingve's  heart,  and  Ingve's  blade 
Alf  on  the  bloody  threshold  laid. 
Can  men  resist  Fate's  iron  laws  ? 
They  slew  each  other  without  cause." 


Chavter        Hugleik  was  the  name  of  King  Alf 's  son,  who  suc- 


XXV 


Of  Hug-      ceeded  the  two  brothers  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Swedes, 
leik.  ^i^g  gQj^g  q£  Yngve  being  still  children.    King  Hugleik 

was  no  warrior,  but  sat  quietly  at  home  in  his  country. 
He  was  very  rich,  but  had  still  more  the  reputation 
of  being  very  greedy.  He  had  at  his  court  all  sorts 
of  players,  who  played  on  harps,  fiddles,  and  viols  ; 
and  had  mth  him  magicians,  and  all  sorts  of  witches. 
Hake  and  Hagberd  were  two  brothers,  very  cele- 
brated as  sea-kings,  who  had  a  great  force  of  men- 
at-arms.  Sometimes  they  cruised  in  company,  some- 
times each  for  himself,  and  many  warriors  folloA\  ed 
them  both.  King  Hake  came  with  his  troops  to 
Sweden  against  King  Hugleik,  who,  on  his  side,  col- 
lected a  great  army  to  oppose  him.  Two  brothers 
came  to  his  assistance,  Svipdag  and  Geigad,  both  very 
celebrated  men,  and  powerful  combatants.  King 
Hake  had  about  him  twelve  champions,  and  among 
them  Starkod  the  Old  ;  and  King  Hake  himself  was  a 
murderous  combatant.  They  met  on  Fyrisvold,  and 
there  was  a  great  battle,  in  which  King  Hugieik's 
army  was  soon  defeated.  Then  the  combatants,  Svip- 
dag and  Geigad,  pressed  forward  manfully ;  but  Hake's 
champions  went  six  against  one,  and  they  were  both 
taken  prisoners.  Then  King  Hake  penetrated  within 
the  shield- circle*  around  King  Hugleik,  and  killed 
him  and  two  of  his  sons  within  it.      After  this  the 

*  A  bulwark  or  covering  of  shields — the  testudo  of  the  Romans 

seems  always  to  have  been  formed  round  the  king's  person  in  battle. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  237 


SAGA   I. 


Swedes  fled;  and  King  Hake  subdued  the  country, 
and  became  king  of  Sweden.  He  then  sat  quietly  at 
home  for  three  years ;  but  during  that  time  his  com- 
batants went  abroad  on  viking  expeditions,  and  ga- 
thered property  for  themselves. 

Jorund  and  Eric,  the  sons  of  Yno-ve  Alricson,  lay  all    Chapter 

.  .  XXVI 

this  time  in  their  war-ships,  and  were  great  warriors,  xin^ 
One  summer  they  marauded  in  Denmark,  where  they  Cudiog's 
met  a  King  Gudlog,  and  had  a  battle  with  him,  which 
ended  in  their  clearing  Gudlog's  ship  and  taking  him 
prisoner.  They  carried  him  to  the  land  at  Stromo- 
ness,  and  hanged  him  there,  and  afterwards  his  men 
raised  a  mound  over  him.  So  says  Eyvind  Skalda- 
spiller :  — 

''■  By  the  fierce  East-kings'*  cruel  pride, 
Gudlog  must  on  the  wild  horse  ride  — 
The  wildest  horse  you  e'er  did  see  : 
'Tis  Segur's  steed — the  gallows  tree. 
At  Stromoness  the  tree  did  grow. 
Where  Gudlog's  corpse  waves  on  the  bough. 
A  high  stone  stands  on  Stromo's  heath, 
To  tell  the  gallant  hero's  death." 

The  brothers  Eric  and  Jorund  became  more  cele-    Chapter 
brated  by  this  deed,  and  appeared  to  be  much  greater  o"f  Khii^" 
men  than  before.    When  they  heard  that  King  Hake  Hake.  ° 
in  Sweden  had  sent  from  him  his  champions,  they 
steered   towards  Sweden,    and   gathered   together   a 
strong  force.      As  soon  as  the  Swedes  heard  that  the 
Ynglingers  were  come  to  them,  they  flocked  to  the 
brothers  in  multitudes.     The  brothers  proceeded  up 
the  Maelare  lake,  and  advanced  towards  Upsal  against 
King  Hake,  who  came  out  against  them  on  the  Fyris- 
vold  with  far  fewer  people.     There  was  a  great  battle, 
in  which  King  Hake  went  forward  so  bravely  that  he 
killed  all  who  were  nearest  to  him,  and  at  last  killed 
King  Eric,  and  cut  down  the  banner  of  the  two  bro- 
thers.    King  Jorund  with  all  his  men  fled  to  their 

*  The  Swedish  kings  Jorund  and  Eric,  of  Yngve's  race,  are  said  to 
be  of  the  East — as  relative  to  Norway,  from  which  Gudlog  came. 


238  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  I.  ships.  King  Hake  had  been  so  grievously  wounded 
that  he  saw  his  days  could  not  be  long ;  so  he  ordered 
a  war-ship  which  he  had  to  be  loaded  ^vith  his  dead 
men  and  their  weapons,  and  to  be  taken  out  to  the 
sea;  the  tiller  to  be  shipped,  and  the  sails  hoisted. 
Then  he  set  fire  to  some  tar- wood,  and  ordered  a  pile 
to  be  made  over  it  in  the  ship.  Hake  was  almost  if 
not  quite  dead,  when  he  was  laid  upon  this  pile  of  his. 
The  wind  was  blowing  off  the  land,  —  the  ship  flew, 
burning  in  clear  flame,  out  between  the  islets,  and 
into  the  ocean.  Great  was  the  fame  of  this  deed  in 
after  times. 

XXVI II        Jorund,  King  Yngve's  son,  remained  king  at  Upsal. 

Jorund's  He  ruled  the  country ;  but  was  often,  in  summer,  out 
on  war  expeditions.  One  summer  he  went  with  his 
forces  to  Denmark ;  and  having  plundered  all  around 
in  Jutland,  he  went  into  Lymfiord  in  autumn,  and 
marauded  there  also.  While  he  was  thus  lying  in 
Oddosund  with  his  people.  King  Gylog  of  Halogaland, 
a  son  of  King  Gudlog,  of  whom  mention  is  made  be- 
fore, came  up  with  a  great  force,  and  gave  battle  to 
Jorund.  When  the  country  people  saw  this  they 
swarmed  from  all  parts  towards  the  battle,  in  great 
ships  and  small;  and  Jorund  was  overpowered  by  the 
multitude,  and  his  ships  cleared  of  their  men.  He 
sprang  overboard,  but  was  made  prisoner  and  carried 
to  the. land.  Gylog  ordered  a  gallows  to  be  erected, 
led  Jorund  to  it,  and  had  him  hanged  there.  So 
ended  his  life.     Thiodolf  talks  of  this  event  thus :  — 

''  Jorund  has  travelled  far  and  wide^ 
But  the  same  horse  he  must  bestride 
On  which  he  made  brave  Gudlog  ride. 
He  too  must  for  a  necklace  wear 
Hagbert's*  fell  noose  in  middle  air. 
The  army  leader  thus  must  ride 
On  Horva'sl  horse,  at  Limfiord's  side." 


*  Hagbert's  noose — the  gallows  rope  by  which  Hagbert  was  hanged. 

•j"   Horva,  a  sea-king,  whose  name  is  given  also  to  Odin  by  the  scalds. 

Odin  was  the  god  of  the  hanged;  and  Odin's  horse  was  a  name  for  the 


gallows. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  239 

On  or  Ane  was  the  name  of  Jorund's  son,  who  saga  i. 
became  king  of  the  Swedes  after  his  father.  He  was  Chapter 
a  wise  man,  who  made  great  sacrifices  to  the  gods ;  of  Kin^ 
but,  being  no  warrior,  he  Uved  quietly  at  home.  In  ^^"^''« 
the  time  when  the  kings  we  have  been  speaking  of 
were  in  Upsal,  Denmark  had  been  ruled  over  by  Dan 
Mikellati,  who  lived  to  a  very  great  age  ;  then  by  his 
son,  Frode  Mikellati,  or  the  Peace-loving,  who  was 
succeeded  by  his  sons  Half  dan  and  Fridleif,  who 
were  great  warriors.  Halfdan  was  older  than  his 
brother,  and  above  him  in  all  things.  He  went  with 
his  army  against  King  On  to  Sweden,  and  was  always 
victorious.  At  last  King  On  fled  to  Wester  Gotland 
when  he  had  been  king  in  Upsal  about  twenty-five 
years,  and  was  in  Gotland  twenty-five  years,  while 
Halfdan  remained  king  in  Upsal.  King  Halfdan  died 
in  his  bed,  and  was  buried  there  in  a  mound ;  and  King 
On  returned  to  Upsal  when  he  was  sixty  years  of  age. 
He  made  a  great  sacrifice,  and  in  it  ofiered  up  his  son 
to  Odin.  On  got  an  answer  from  Odin,  that  he  should 
live  sixty  years  longer;  and  he  was  afterwards  king 
in  Upsal  for  twenty-five  years.  Now  came  Ole  the 
Bold,  a  son  of  King  Fridleif,  with  his  army  to  Sweden, 
against  King  On,  and  they  had  several  battles  with 
each  other;  but  Ole  was  always  the  victor.  Then 
On  fled  a  second  time  to  Gotland ;  and  for  twenty-five 
years  Ole  reigned  in  Upsal,  until  he  was  killed  by 
Starkad  the  Old.  After  Ole's  fall.  On  returned  to 
Upsal,  and  ruled  the  kingdom  for  twenty-five  years. 
Then  he  made  a  great  sacrifice  again  for  long  life,  in 
which  he  sacrificed  his  second  son,  and  received  the 
answer  from  Odin,  that  he  should  live  as  long  as  he 
gave  him  one  of  his  sons  every  tenth  year,  and  also 
that  he  should  name  one  of  the  districts  of  his  country 
after  the  number  of  sons  he  should  ofi^er  to  Odin. 
When  he  had  sacrificed  the  seventh  of  his  sons  he 
continued  to  live ;  but  so  that  he  could  not  walk,  but 


240  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  I.  ^vas  carried  on  a  chair.  Then  he  sacrificed  his  eighth 
son,  and  lived  thereafter  ten  years,  lying  in  his  bed. 
Now  he  sacrificed  his  ninth  son,  and  lived  ten  years 
more ;  but  so  that  he  drank  out  of  a  horn  like  a  weaned 
infant.  He  had  now  only  one  son  remaining,  whom 
he  also  wanted  to  sacrifice,  and  to  give  Odin  Upsal 
and  the  domains  thereunto  belonging,  under  the  name 
of  the  Ten  Lands,  but  the  Swedes  would  not  allow 
it ;  so  there  was  no  sacrifice,  and  King  On  died,  and 
was  buried  in  a  mound  at  Upsal.  Since  that  time  it 
is  called  On's  sickness  when  a  man  dies,  without  pain, 
of  extreme  old  age.     Thiodolf  tells  of  this :  — 

"  In  Upsal's  town  the  cruel  king 

Slaughtered  his  sons  at  Odin's  shrine  — 

Slaughtered  his  sons  with  cruel  knife, 

To  get  from  Odin  length  of  life. 

He  lived  until  he  had  to  turn 

His  toothless  mouth  to  the  deer's  horn  ; 

And  he  who  shed  his  children's  blood 

Sucked  through  the  ox's  horn  his  food. 

At  length  fell  Death  has  tracked  him  down. 

Slowly,  but  sure,,  in  Upsal's  town." 

Chapter  Egil  was  tlic  uamc  of  Ou  the  Old's  son,  who  suc- 
ofE^u  ceeded  as  king  in  Sweden  after  his  father's  death, 
and  Tunne.  jJc  was  uo  warrior,  but  sat  quietly  at  home.  Tunne 
w^as  the  name  of  a  slave  who  had  been  the  counsellor 
and  treasurer  of  On  the  Old  ;  and  when  On  died 
Tunne  took  much  treasure  and  buried  it  in  the  earth. 
Now  when  Egil  became  king  he  put  Tunne  among 
the  other  slaves,  which  he  took  very  ill  and  ran  away 
Avith  others  of  the  slaves.  They  dug  up  the  treasures 
which  Tunne  had  concealed,  and  he  gave  them  to  his 
men,  and  was  made  their  chief.  Afterwards  many 
malefactors  flocked  to  him ;  and  they  lay  out  in  the 
woods,  but  sometimes  fell  upon  the  domains,  pillaging 
and  kilhng  the  people.  When  King  Egil  heard  this, 
he  went  out  with  his  forces  to  pursue  them ;  but  one 
night  when  he  had  taken  up  his  night  quarters,  Tunne 
came  there  with  his  men,  fell  on  the  king's  men  unex- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  241 

pectedly,  and  killed  many  of  them.  As  soon  as  King  saga  l 
Egil  perceived  the  tumult,  he  prepared  for  defence, 
and  set  up  his  banner ;  but  many  people  deserted 
him,  because  Tunne  and  his  men  attacked  them  so 
boldly,  and  King  Egil  saw  that  nothing  was  left  but 
to  fly.  Tunne  pursued  the  fugitives  into  the  forest, 
and  then  returned  to  the  inhabited  land,  ravaging 
and  plundering  without  resistance.  All  the  goods 
that  fell  into  Tuime's  hands  he  gave  to  his  ]  eople,  and 
thus  became  popular  and  strong  in  men.  King  Egil 
assembled  an  army  again,  and  hastened  to  give  battle 
to  Tunne.  But  Tunne  was  again  victorious,  and  King 
Egil  fled  with  the  loss  of  many  people.  Egil  and 
Tunne  had  eight  battles  with  each  other,  and  Tunne 
always  gained  the  victory.  Then  King  Egil  fled  out 
of  the  country,  and  went  to  Sealand  in  Denmark,  to 
Erode  the  Bold,  and  promised  him  a  scatt  from  the 
Swedes  to  obtain  help.  Erode  gave  him  an  army, 
and  also  his  champions,  with  which  force  King  Egil 
repaired  to  Sweden.  When  Tunne  heard  this  he 
came  out  to  meet  him ;  and  there  was  a  great  battle, 
in  which  Tunne  fell,  and  King  Egil  recovered  his 
kingdom,  and  the  Danes  returned  home.  King  Egil 
sent  King  Erode  great  and  good  presents  every  year, 
but  he  paid  no  scatt  to  the  Danes ;  but  notwithstand- 
ing the  friendship  between  Egil  and  Erode  continued 
without  interruption.  After  Tunne' s  fall,  Egil  ruled 
the  kingdom  for  three  years.  It  happened  in  Sweden 
that  an  old  bull,  which  was  destined  for  sacrifice,  was 
fed  so  high  that  he  became  dangerous  to  people;  and 
Avhen  they  were  going  to  lay  hold  of  him  he  escaped 
into  the  woods,  became  furious,  and  Avas  long  in  the 
forest  committing  great  damage  to  the  country.  King 
Egil  was  a  great  hunter,  and  often  rode  into  the 
forest  to  chase  wild  animals.  Once  he  rode  out  with 
his  men  to  hunt  in  the  forest.  The  king  had  traced 
an  animal  a  long  while,  and  followed  it  in  the  forest, 

VOL.  I.  R 


242  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  I.  separated  from  all  his  men.  He  observed  at  last  that 
it  was  the  bull,  and  rode  up  to  it  to  kill  it.  The  bull 
turned  round  suddenly,  and  the  king  struck  him  with 
his  spear ;  but  it  tore  itself  out  of  the  wound.  The 
bull  now  struck  his  horn  in  the  side  of  the  horse,  so 
that  he  instantly  fell  flat  on  the  earth  with  the  king. 
The  king  sprang  up,  and  was  drawing  his  sword, 
when  the  bull  struck  his  horns  right  into  the  king's 
breast.  The  king's  men  then  came  up  and  killed  the 
bull.  The  king  lived  but  a  short  time,  and  was  buried 
in  a  mound  at  Upsal.     Thiodolf  sings  of  it  thus :  — 

"  The  fair-haired  son  of  Odin's  race, 
Who  fled  before  fierce  Tunne's  face, 
Has  perished  by  the  demon-beast 
Who  roams  the  forests  of  the  East. 
The  hero's  breast  met  the  full  brunt 
Of  the  wild  bull's  shaggy  front ; 
The  hero's  heart's  asunder  torn 
By  the  fell  Jotun's  spear-like  horn." 

Chapter        Ottar  was  the  uamc  of  Kin^r  E^^il's  son  who  suc- 

XXXI. 

Of  King  ceeded  to  the  domains  and  kingdom  after  him.  He 
^"^^'  did  not  continue  friendly  wdth  King  Erode,  and  there- 
fore King  Erode  sent  messengers  to  King  Ottar  to 
demand  the  scatt  which  Egil  had  promised  him. 
Ottar  replied,  that  the  Swedes  had  never  paid  scatt 
to  the  Danes,  neither  would  he ;  and  the  messengers 
had  to  depart  with  this  answer.  Erode  was  a  great 
warrior ;  and  he  came  one  summer  Avith  his  army  to 
Sweden,  and  landed  and  ravaged  the  country.  He 
killed  many  people,  took  some  prisoners,  burned  all 
around  in  the  inhabited  parts,  made  a  great  booty, 
and  made  great  devastation.  The  next  summer  King 
Erode  made  an  expedition  to  the  eastward ;  and  when 
King  Ottar  heard  that  Erode  was  not  at  home  in  his 
own  country,  he  went  on  board  his  own  ships,  sailed 
over  to  Denmark,  and  ravaged  there  mthout  oppo- 
sition. As  he  heard  that  a  great  many  people  were 
collected  at   Sealand,   he  proceeds  westward  to   the 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  243 

Sound,  and  sails  north  about  to  Jutland ;  lands  at  saga  i. 
Lymfiord ;  plunders  the  Vend  district  * ;  burns,  and 
lays  waste,  and  makes  desolate  the  country  he  goes 
over  with  his  army.  Yixtte  and  Faste  were  the  names 
of  the  earls  whom  Frode  had  appointed  to  defend  the 
country  in  Denmark  while  he  was  abroad.  When 
the  earls  heard  that  the  Swedish  king  was  laying 
waste  Denmark,  they  collected  an  army,  hastened  on 
board  their  ships,  and  sailed  by  the  south  side  to 
Lymfiord.  They  came  unexpectedly  upon  Ottar,  and 
the  battle  began  immediately.  The  Swedes  gave 
them  a  good  reception,  and  many  people  fell  on  both 
sides ;  but  as  soon  as  men  fell  in  the  Danish  army 
other  men  hastened  from  the  country  to  fill  their 
places,  and  also  all  the  vessels  in  the  neighbourhood 
joined  them.  The  battle  ended  with  the  fall  of  Ottar 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  people.  The  Danes  took 
his  body,  carried  it  to  the  land,  laid  it  upon  a  mound 
of  earth,  and  let  the  wild  beasts  and  ravens  tear  it  to 
pieces.  Thereafter  they  made  a  figure  of  a  crow  out 
of  wood,  sent  it  to  Sweden,  and  sent  word  with  it  that 
their  king,  Ottar,  was  no  better  than  it ;  and  from  this 
he  was  called  Ottar  Yendelcrow.  Thiodolf  tells  so 
of  it :  — 

"  By  Danish  arms  the  hero  bold, 
Ottar  the  Brave,  lies  stiff  and  cold. 
To  Vendel's  plain  the  corpse  was  borne ; 
By  eagles'  claws  the  corpse  is  torn. 
Spattered  by  ravens'  bloody  feet, 
The  wild  bird's  prey,  the  wild  wolf's  meat. 
The  Swedes  have  vowed  revenge  to  take 
On  Frode's  earls,  for  Ottar's  sake ; 
Like  dogs  to  kill  them  in  their  land. 
In  their  own  homes,  by  Swedish  hand." 

Adils  was  the  name  of  Kino;  Ottar's  son  and  sue-    Chapter 

XXXII 

cessor.     He  was  a  long  time  king,  became  very  rich,  of  Ki 
and  went  also  for  several  summers  on  viking  expe- 

*  Vendill,  the  part  of  Jutland  north  of  Lymfiord. 

R    2 


ing 
Adils'  mar- 
riaffe. 


244 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 


Chapter 
XXXIII. 
Of  King 
Adils' 
death. 


(litions.  On  one  of  these  he  came  to  Saxonland  with 
his  troops.  There  a  king  was  reigning,  called  Geir- 
thiof,  and  his  wife  was  called  Alof  the  Great;  but 
nothing  is  told  of  their  children.  The  king  was  not 
at  home,  and  Adils  and  his  men  ran  up  to  the  king's 
house  and  plundered  it,  while  others  drove  a  herd  of 
cattle  down  to  the  strand.*  The  herd  was  attended 
by  slave-people,  carls  and  girls,  and  they  took  all 
of  them  together.  Among  them  was  a  remarkably 
beautiful  girl  called  Yrsa.  Adils  returned  home  with 
this  plunder.  Yrsa  was  not  one  of  the  slave  girls, 
and  it  was  soon  observed  that  she  was  intelligent, 
spoke  well,  and  in  all  respects  was  well  behaved. 
All  people  thought  well  of  her,  and  particularly  the 
king ;  and  at  last  it  came  to  so  far  that  the  king  cele- 
brated his  wedding  with  her,  and  Yrsa  became  queen 
of  Sweden,  and  was  considered  an  excellent  woman. 

King  Halfdan's  son  Helge  ruled  at  that  time  over 
Leidre.  He  came  to  Sweden  with  so  great  an  army, 
that  King  Adils  saw  no  other  way  than  to  fly  at 
once.  King  Helge  landed  with  his  army,  plundered, 
and  made  a  great  booty.  He  took  Queen  Yrsa  pri- 
soner, carried  her  with  him  to  Leidre,  took  her  to 
mfe,  and  had  a  son  by  her  called  Rolf  Krake.  When 
Rolf  was  three  years  old.  Queen  Alof  came  to  Den- 
mark, and  told  Queen  Yrsa  that  her  husbaiid,  King 
Helge,  was  her  own  father,  and  that  she,  Alof,  was 
her  mother.  Thereupon  Yrsa  went  back  to  Sweden 
to  King  Adils,  and  was  queen  there  as  long  as  she 


*  The  ordinary  way,  with  the  vikings^  of  victualling  their  ships^  was 
driving  cattle  down  to  the  strand  and  killing  them,  without  regard  to 
the  property  of  friends  or  enemies ;  and  this  was  so  established  a  prac- 
tice that  it  was  expressed  in  a  single  word,  ''  strandhug."  King 
Harald  Haarfager  had  prohibited  the  strandhug  being  committed  in  his 
own  dominions  by  his  own  subjects  on  their  viking  cruises ;  and  Rolf 
Ganger,  the  son  of  the  Earl  of  More,  having,  notwithstanding,  landed  and 
made  a  strandhug  in  the  South  of  Norway,  where  the  king  happened 
to  be,  was  outlawed  ;  and  he  in  consequence  set  out  on  an  expedition_, 
in  which  he  conquered  and  settled  in  Normandy. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  245 

lived.  King  Ilelge  fell  in  a  war  expedition  ;  and  Rolf  saga  i. 
Krake,  who  was  then  eight  years  old,  was  taken  to  be 
king  in  Leidre.  King  Adils  had  many  disputes  with 
a  king  called  Ali  of  the  Uplands ;  and  these  kings 
had  a  battle  on  the  ice  of  the  Yenner  lake,  in  which 
Kino:  Ali  fell,  and  Kino^  Adils  won  the  battle.  There 
is  a  long  account  of  this  battle  in  the  Skioldunga 
Saga,  and  also  about  Rolf  Krake' s  coming  to  Adils, 
and  sowing  gold  upon  the  Fyrisvold.  King  Adils 
was  a  great  lover  of  good  horses,  and  had  the  best 
horses  of  these  times.  One  of  his  horses  was  called 
Slongvir,  and  another  Raven.  This  horse  he  had 
taken  from  Ali  on  his  death,  and  bred  from  him  a 
horse,  also  called  Raven,  which  the  king  sent  in  a 
present  to  King  Godgest  in  Halogaland.  When  God- 
gest  mounted  the  horse  he  was  not  able  to  manage 
him,  and  fell  off,  and  was  killed.  This  accident  hap- 
pened at  Omd  in  Halogaland.*  King  Adils  was  at 
a  Disaf  sacrifice ;  and  as  he  rode  around  the  Disa  hall 
his  horse  Raven  stumbled  and  fell,  and  the  king  was 
thrown  forward  upon  his  head,  and  his  scull  was  split, 
and  his  brains  dashed  out  against  a  stone.  Adils  died 
at  Upsal,  and  was  buried  there  in  a  mound.  The 
Swedes  called  him  a  great  king.  Thiodolf  speaks 
thus  of  him  :  — 

^'  Witch-demons,  I  have  heard  men  say, 
Have  taken  Adils'  life  away. 
The  son  of  kings  of  Frey's  great  race, 
P'irst  in  the  fray,  the  fight,  the  chase. 
Fell  from  his  steed  —  his  clotted  brains 
Lie  mixed  with  mire  on  Upsal's  plains. 
Such  death   (grim  Fate  has  willed  it  so) 
Has  struck  down  All's  deadly  foe." 


*  Halogaland  is  the  province  of  Norway  now  called  Nordland,  ex- 
tending from  the  Namsin  river  north  to  Westfiord,  where  it  joins  the 
province  of  Finmark. 

•j"  Disar  was  the  name  given  to  the  goddesses  of  the  northern  mytho- 
logy ;  and  Disa  is  supposed  to  have  been  Freya,  in  whose  honour  a 
great  sacrifice,  called  Disa  Blot,  was  held  in  mid- winter. 

R    3 


246 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA   I. 

Chapter 
XXXIV. 

Rolf 

Krake's 

death. 


Chapter 
XXXV. 

Of  Eystein 
and  the 
Jutland 
king  Solve. 


Eystein,  King  Adils'  son,  ruled  next  over  Sweden, 
and  in  his  lifetime  Rolf  Krake  of  Leidre  fell.  In 
those  days  many  kings,  both  Danes  and  Northmen, 
ravaged  the  Swedish  dominions ;  for  there  were  many 
sea-kings  who  ruled  over  many  people,  but  had  no 
lands,  and  he  might  well  be  called  a  sea-king  who 
never  slept  beneath  sooty  roof- timbers. 

There  was  a  sea-king  called  Solve,  a  son  of  Hogne 
of  Niardo*,  who  at  that  time  plundered  in  the  Baltic, 
but  had  his  dominion  in  Jutland.  He  came  with  his 
forces  to  Sweden,  just  as  King  Eystein  was  at  a  feast 
in  a  district  called  Lofond.f  Solve  came  unexpectedly 
in  the  night  on  Eystein,  surrounded  the  house  in 
which  the  king  was,  and  burned  him  and  all  his  court. 
Then  Solve  went  to  Sigtun,  and  desired  that  the  Swedes 
should  receive  him,  and  give  him  the  title  of  king; 
but  they  collected  an  army,  and  tried  to  defend  the 
country  against  him,  on  which  there  was  a  great  battle, 
that  lasted,  according  to  report,  eleven  days.  There 
King  Solve  was  victorious,  and  was  afterwards  king 
of  the  Swedish  dominions  for  a  long  time,  until  at  last 
the  Swedes  betrayed  him,  and  he  was  killed.  Thiodolf 
tells  of  it  thus  :  — 


Chapter 
XXXVI. 

Of  Yng- 
var's  fall. 


'^  For  a  long  time  none  could  tell 
How  Eystein  died — but  now  I  know 
That  at  Lofond  the  hero  fell ; 
The  branch  of  Odin  was  laid  low. 
Was  burnt  by  Solve's  Jutland  men. 
The  raging  tree-devourer  fire 
Rushed  on  the  monarch  in  its  ire  ; 
First  fell  the  castle  timbers,  then 
The  roof-beams — Eystein's  funeral  pyre." 

Yngvar,  who  was  King  Eystein's  son,  then  became 
king  of  Sweden.  He  was  a  great  warrior,  and  often 
lay  out  with  his  war-ships ;  for  the  SAvedish  dominions 


*  Niardo,  an  island  in  North  Drontheim  district, 
■f  Lofond,  an  isle  in  the  Maelare  lake,  on  which  the  palace  of  Drott- 
ningholm  now  stands. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  247 

were  much  ransacked  then  by  Danes  and  East-country  saga  i. 
men.  King  Yngvar  made  a  peace  with  the  Danes ; 
but  betook  himself  to  ravaging  the  East  country  in 
return.  One  summer  he  went  with  his  forces  to 
Esthonia,  and  plundered  at  a  place  called  Stein.  The 
Esthonians  came  down  from  the  interior  with  a  great 
army,  and  there  was  a  battle ;  but  the  army  of  the 
country  was  so  brave  that  the  Swedes  could  not  with- 
stand them,  and  King  Yngvar  fell,  and  his  people 
fled.  He  was  buried  close  to  the  sea-shore  under  a 
mound,  and  after  this  defeat  the  S^vedes  returned 
home.     Thiodolf  sings  of  it  thus  :  — 

"  Certain  it  is  the  Esthland  foe 

The  fair-haired  Swedish  king  laid  low. 
On  Esthland's  strand,  o'er  Swedish  graves. 
The  East  Sea  sings  her  song  of  waves ; 
King  Yngvar's  dirge  is  ocean's  roar 
Resounding  on  the  rock-ribbed  shore." 

Onund  was  the  name  of  Yngvar's  son  who  sue-  chapter 
ceeded  him.  In  his  days  there  was  peace  in  Sweden,  ofo^iLV' 
and  he  became  rich  in  valuable  goods.  King  Onund  the  Land- 
went  with  his  army  to  Esthonia  to  avenge  his  father, 
and  landed  and  ravaged  the  country  round  far  and 
wide,  and  returned  with  a  great  booty  in  autumn  to 
Sweden.  In  his  time  there  were  fruitful  seasons  in 
SAveden,  so  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  popular  of 
kings.  Sweden  is  a  great  forest  land,  and  there  are 
such  great  uninhabited  forests  in  it  that  it  is  a  journey 
of  many  days  to  cross  them.  Onund  bestowed  great 
diligence  and  expense  on  clearing  the  woods  and  cul- 
tivating the  cleared  land.  He  made  roads  through 
the  desert  forests ;  and  thus  cleared  land  is  found  all 
through  the  forest  country,  and  great  districts  are 
settled.  In  this  way  extensive  tracts  of  land  were 
brought  into  cultivation,  for  there  were  country  people 
enough  to  cultivate  the  land.  Onund  had  roads  made 
through    all  Sweden,  both  through  forests  and  mo- 

R  4 


248  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  I.  rasses,  and  also  over  mountains ;  and  he  was  therefore 
called  Onund  Roadmaker.  He  had  a  house  built  for 
himself  in  every  district  of  Sweden,  and  went  over 
the  whole  country  in  guest-quarters.* 
Chapter  Onuud  had  a  SOU  Called  Ingiald,  and  at  that  time 
Ofingiaid  Yngvar  was  king  of  the  district  of  Fiadryndaland. 
Yngvar  had  two  sons  by  his  wife, — the  one  called  Alf, 
the  other  Agnar,  —  who  were  about  the  same  age  as 
Ingiald.  Onund' s  district-kings  were  at  that  time 
spread  widely  over  Sweden,  and  Svipdag  the  Blind 
ruled  over  Fiundaland,  in  which  Upsal  is  situated, 
and  where  all  the  Swedish  Things  are  held.  There 
also  were  held  the  mid-winter  sacrifices,  at  which 
many  kings  attended.  One  year  at  mid-mnter  there 
was  a  great  assembly  of  people  at  Upsal,  and  King 
Yngvar  had  also  come  there  with  his  sons.  Alf, 
King  Yngvar's  son,  and  Ingiald,  King  Onund's  son, 
were  there, — both  about  six  years  old.  They  amused 
themselves  with  child's  play,  in  which  each  should  be 
leading  on  his  army.  In  their  play  Ingiald  found 
himself  not  so  strong  as  Alf,  and  was  so  vexed  that 
he  almost  cried.  His  foster-brother  Gautvid  came 
up,  led  him  to  his  foster-father  Svipdag  the  Blind, 
and  told  him  how  ill  it  appeared  that  he  was  weaker 
and  less  manly  than  Alf,  King  Yngvar's  son.  Svipdad 
replied  that  it  Avas  a  great  shame.  The  day  after 
Svipdag  took  the  heart  of  a  wolf,  roasted  it  on  the 
tongs,  and  gave  it  to  the  king's  son  Ingiald  to  eat, 
and  from  that  time  he  became  a  most  ferocious  per- 
son, and  of  the  worst  disposition.  When  Ingiald  was 
grown  up,  Onund  applied  for  him  to  King  Algaut  for 
his  daughter  Gautheld.     Algaut  was  a  son  of  Gautrek 

*  This  continued  to  be  the  ordinary  way  of  subsisting  the  kings  and 
court  in  Norway  for  many  generations.  In  Sweden  the  kings  appear  to 
have  had  a  fixed  residence  at  Upsal,  and  in  Denmark  at  Leidre  and 
Odinso  ;  while  in  Norway  they  appear  to  have  lived  always  in  royal 
progresses  through  the  districts  in  turns,  without  any  palace,  castle,  or 
fixed  abode. 


Onund's 
death. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  249 

the  Mild,  and  grandson  of  Gaut ;  and  from  them  Got-  s.\ga^t. 
land*  took  its  name.  King  Algaut  thought  his  daugh- 
ter would  be  well  married  if  she  got  King  Onund's 
son,  and  if  he  had  his  father's  disposition ;  so  the  girl 
was  sent  to  Sweden,  and  King  Ingiald  celebrated  his 
wedding;  with  her  in  due  time. 

Kinjj:  Onund  one  autumn,  travelling:  between  his    Chapter 

.  XXXIX 

mansion-houses,  came  over  a  road  called  Himmen-  or  King 
heath,  where  there  are  some  narrow  mountain  valleys, 
with  high  mountains  on  both  sides.  There  was  heavy 
rain  at  the  time,  and  before  there  had  been  snow  on 
the  mountains.  A  landslip  of  clay  and  stones  came 
down  upon  King  Onund  and  his  people,  and  there  he 
met  his  death,  and  many  mth  him.f  So  says  Thiodolf ; 
namely,  — 

'^  We  all  have  heard  how  Jonkur's^  sons^ 
Whom  weapons  could  not  touch,  with  stones 
Were  stoned  to  death  —  in  open  day. 
King  Onund  died  in  the  same  way. 
Or  else  perhaps  the  wood-grown  land. 
Which  long  had  felt  his  conquering  hand. 
Uprose  at  length  in  deadly  strife. 
And  pressed  out  Onund's  hated  life." 

Then  Ingiald,  King  Onund's  son,  came  to  the  king-  Chapter 
dom.  The  Upsal  kings  were  the  highest  in  Sweden  The  bum- 
among  the  many  district-kings  who  had  been  since 
the  time  that  Odin  was  chief.  The  kings  who  resided 
at  Upsal  had  been  the  supreme  chiefs  over  the  whole 
Swedish  dominions  until  the  death  of  Agne,  when,  as 

*  This  derivation  of  the  name  Gothland,  given  to  the  small  king- 
doms in  Sweden  called  East  and  West  Gothland,  and  the  island  of 
Gothland,  from  the  name  of  a  chief,  does  away  with  a  great  deal  of 
absurd  speculation  that  these  small  districts  were  the  original  seats  of 
the  mighty  people  called  Goths  who  overwhelmed  the  Roman  empire, 

■j"  It  is  said  there  is  a  mound,  called  Onund's  Hog,  in  the  barony  of 
Siunde  in  Westmanland,  where  this  accident  occurred. 

^  Jonakur  was  a  king  in  the  Edda  whose  sons  were  stoned  to  death, 
because  steel  weapons  could  not  wound  them.  The  meaning  is,  that 
Onund  was  killed  in  the  same  way  by  stones — which  the  earth  may 
have  showered  down  upon  him  for  his  cutting  down  wood  and  improv- 
ing land. 


ing  in 
Upsal. 


250  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 


before  related,  the  kingdom  came  to  be  divided  be- 
tween brothers.  After  that  time  the  dominions  and 
kingly  powers  were  spread  among  the  branches  of  the 
family  as  these  increased;  but  some  kings  cleared 
great  tracts  of  forest-land,  and  settled  them,  and 
thereby  increased  their  domains.  Now  when  Ingiald 
took  the  dominions  and  the  kingdom  of  his  father, 
there  were,  as  before  said,  many  district-kings.  King 
Ingiald  ordered  a  great  feast  to  be  prepared  in  Upsal, 
and  intended  to  enter  at  it  on  his  heritage  after  King 
Onund  his  father.  He  had  a  large  hall  made  ready 
for  the  occasion,  —  one  not  less,  nor  less  sumptuous, 
than  that  of  Upsal ;  and  this  hall  was  called  the  Seven 
Kings  Hall,  and  in  it  were  seven  high  seats  for  kings. 
Then  King  Ingiald  sent  men  all  through  Sweden,  and 
invited  to  his  feast  kings,  earls,  and  other  men  of  con- 
sequence. To  this  heir-feast  came  King  Algaut,  his 
father-in-law ;  Yngvar  king  of  Fiadryndaland,  with  his 
two  sons,  Alf  and  Agnar ;  King  Spossniall  of  Nerike ; 
King  Sighvat  of  Aattundaland :  but  Granmar  king  of 
Sondermanland  did  not  come.  Six  kings  were  placed 
in  the  seats  in  the  new  hall ;  but  one  of  the  high  seats 
which  Ingiald  had  prepared  was  empty.  All  the  per- 
sons who  had  come  got  places  in  the  new  hall ;  but 
to  his  own  court,  and  the  rest  of  his  people,  he  had 
appointed  places  at  Upsal.  It  was  the  custom  at  that 
time  that  he  who  gave  an  heirship-feast  after  kings  or 
earls,  and  entered  upon  the  heritage,  should  sit  upon 
the  footstool  in  front  of  the  high  seat,  until  the  full 
bowl,  which  was  called  the  Braga-bowl,  was  brought 
in.  Then  he  should  stand  up,  take  the  braga-bowl, 
make  solemn  vows  to  be  afterwards  fulfilled,  and 
thereupon  empty  the  bowl.  Then  he  should  ascend 
the  high  seat  which  his  father  had  occupied;  and  thus 
he  came  to  the  full  heritage  after  his  father.  Now  it 
was  done  so  on  this  occasion.  When  the  full  braga- 
bowl  came  in.  King  Ingiald  stood  up,  grasped  a  large 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  251 

bull's  horn,  and  made  a  solemn  vow  to  enlarge  his  s-\ga^i. 
dominions  by  one  half,  towards  all  the  four  corners  of 
the  world,  or  die ;  and  thereupon  pointed  with  the 
horn  to  the  four  quarters.  Now  when  the  guests  had 
become  drunk  towards  evening  King  Ingiald  told 
Svipdag's  sons,  Folkvid  and  Hylvid,  to  arm  them- 
selves and  their  men,  as  had  before  been  settled ;  and 
accordingly  they  went  out,  and  came  up  to  the  new 
hall,  and  set  fire  to  it.  The  hall  was  soon  in  a  blaze, 
and  the  six  kings,  with  all  their  people,  were  burned  in 
it.  Those  who  tried  to  come  out  were  killed.  Then 
King  Ingiald  laid  all  the  dominions  these  kings  had 
possessed  under  himself,  and  took  scatt  from  them. 

When    Kino^    Granmar    heard   the    news   of  this    Chapter 

...  XLI 

treachery,  he  thought  the  same  lot  awaited  him  if  he  of  iiior- 
did  not  take  care.     The  same  summer  Kino;  Hiorvard,  ^^''^''*  "^^^- 

o  '    riage. 

Avho  was  a  son  of  Ylfing,  came  with  his  fleet  to 
Sweden,  and  went  into  a  fiord  called  Myrkva-fiord.* 
When  King  Granmar  heard  this  he  sent  a  messenger 
to  him  to  invite  him  and  all  his  men  to  a  feast.  He 
accepted  it  wilhngly;  for  he  had  never  committed 
Avaste  in  King  Granmar's  dominions.  When  he  came 
to  the  feast  he  was  gladly  welcomed.  In  the  evening, 
when  the  full  bowls  went  round,  as  was  the  custom 
of  kings  when  they  were  at  home,  or  in  the  feasts 
they  ordered  to  be  made,  they  drank  together,  the 
man  and  woman  with  each  other  in  pairs,  and  the 
rest  of  the  company  drank  all  round  in  one  set.  But 
it  was  the  law  among  the  vikings  that  all  who  were 
at  the  entertainment  should  drink  together  in  one 
company  all  round.  King  Hiorvard' s  high  seat  was 
placed  right  opposite  to  King  Granmar's  high  seat, 
and  on  the  same  bench  sat  all  his  men.  King  Granmar 
told  his  daughter  Hildigunna,  who  was  a  remarkably 
beautiful  girl,  to  make  ready  to  carry  ale  to  the  vikings. 

*  Now  Moikofiord,  in  Sodermanland  province. 


252 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA   I. 


Chapter 
XLII. 
War  be- 
tween In- 
giald  and 
Granmar 
and  Hior- 
vard. 


Thereupon  she  took  a  silver  goblet,  filled  it,  bowed 
before  King  Hiorvard,  and  said,  "  Success  to  all 
Ylfingers  :  this  cup  to  the  memory  of  Rolf  Krake," — 
drank  out  the  half,  and  handed  the  cup  to  King 
Hiorvard.  He  took  the  cup,  and  took  her  hand,  and 
said  she  must  sit  beside  him.  She  says,  that  is  not 
viking  fashion  to  drink  two  and  two  with  women. 
Hiorvard  replies,  that  it  were  better  for  him  to  make 
a  change,  and  leave  the  viking  law,  and  drink  in  com- 
pany Avith  her.  Then  Hildigunne  sat  down  beside 
him,  and  both  drank  together,  and  spoke  a  great  deal 
with  each  other  during  the  evening.  The  next  day, 
when  King  Granmar  and  Hiorvard  met,  Hiorvard 
spoke  of  his  courtship,  and  asked  to  have  Hildigunne 
in  marriage.  King  Granmar  laid  this  proposal  before 
his  wife  Hilda,  and  before  people  of  consequence, 
saying  they  would  have  great  help  and  trust  in  Hior- 
vard ;  and  all  approved  of  it  highly,  and  thought  it 
very  advisable.  And  the  end  was,  that  Hildigunne 
was  promised  to  Hiorvard,  and  the  wedding  followed 
soon  after ;  and  King  Hiorvard  staid  with  King  Gran- 
mar, who  had  no  sons,  to  help  him  to  defend  his 
dominions. 

The  same  autumn  King  Ingiald  collected  a  war- 
force,  wdth  which  he  intended  to  fall  upon  these  two 
relations ;  but  when  they  heard  it  they  also  collected 
a  force,  and  Hogne,  who  ruled  over  East  Gotland, 
together  with  his  son  Hildur,  came  to  their  assistance. 
Hogne  was  father  of  Hilda,  who  was  married  to  King 
Granmar.  King  Ingiald  landed  with  his  army,  w^hich 
was  by  far  the  most  numerous.  A  battle  began, 
which  was  very  sharp ;  but  after  it  had  lasted  a  short 
time,  the  chiefs  who  ruled  over  Fiadryndaland,  West 
Gotland,  Nerike,  and  Aatundaland,  took  to  flight  with 
all  the  men  from  those  countries,  and  hastened  to 
their  ships.  This  placed  King  Ingiald  in  great  danger, 
and  he  received  many  wounds,  but  escaped  by  flight 


KINGS   or   NORWAY.  253 

to  his  ships.  Svipdag  the  Blind,  IngiakVs  foster-  saga  r. 
father,  together  with  his  sons,  Gautvid  and  Hylvid, 
fell.  Ingiald  returned  to  Upsal,  very  ill  satisfied  with 
his  expedition ;  and  he  thought  the  army  levied  from 
those  countries  he  had  acquired  by  conquest  had  been 
unfaithful  to  him.  There  was  great  hostility  after- 
wards between  King  Ingiald  and  King  Granmar,  and 
his  son-in-law  King  Hiorvard;  and  after  this  had  con- 
tinued a  long  time  the  friends  of  both  parties  brought 
about  a  reconciliation.  The  king  appointed  a  meeting, 
and  concluded  a  peace.  This  peace  was  to  endure  as 
long  as  the  three  kings  lived,  and  this  was  confirmed 
by  oath  and  promises  of  fidelity.  The  spring  after 
King  Granmar  went  to  Upsal  to  make  offering,  as 
usual,  for  a  steady  peace.  Then  the  foreboding  turned 
out  for  him  so  that  it  did  not  promise  him  long  life, 
and  he  returned  to  his  dominions. 

The  autumn  after,  Kino;  Granmar  and  his  son-in-    Chapter 

.  .  XLIII 

law  Hiorvard  went  to  a  feast  at  one  of  their  farms  in  Death  of' 
the  island  Sili.*  When  they  were  at  the  entertain-  *J?^  ^"^s^ 
ment,  King  Ingiald  came  there  in  the  night  with  and  Hior- 
his  troops,  surrounded  the  house,  and  burnt  them  in 
it,  with  all  their  men.  Then  he  took  to  himself  all 
the  country  these  kings  had  possessed,  and  placed 
chiefs  over  it.  King  Hogiie  and  his  son  Hillder  often 
made  inroads  on  horseback  into  the  Swedish  domi- 
nions, and  killed  King  Ingiald's  men,  whom  he  had 
placed  over  the  kingdom  which  had  belonged  to  their 
relation  Granmar.  This  strife  between  King  Ingiald 
and  King  Hogne  continued  for  a  long  time ;  but  King 
Hogne  defended  his  kingdom  against  King  Ingiald  to 
his  dying  day.  King  Ingiald  had  two  children  by 
his  wife  ;  —  the  eldest  called  Aasa,  the  other  Olaf. 
Gauthild,  the  wife  of  Ingiald,  sent  the  boy  to  his 
foster-father  Bove,  in  West  Gotland,  where  he  was 

*  Now  Saela  isle,  in  the  Maelare  lake. 


254 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 


Chapter 
XLIV. 


brought  up  along  with  Savre,  Bove's  son,  who  had 
the  surname  of  Flettir.  It  was  a  common  saymg  that 
King  Ingiald  had  killed  twelve  kings,  and  deceived 
them  all  under  pretence  of  peace;  therefore  he  was 
called  Ingiald  the  Evil-adviser.  He  was  king  over 
the  greater  part  of  Sweden.  He  married  his  daughter 
Aasa  to  Gudrod  king  of  Scania ;  and  she  was  like  her 
father  in  disposition.  Aasa  brought  it  about  that 
Gudrod  killed  his  brother  Halfdan,  father  of  Ivar 
Vidfadme ;  and  also  she  brought  about  the  death  of 
her  husband  Gudrod,  and  then  fled  to  her  father; 
and  she  thus  got  the  name  also  of  Aasa  the  Evil- 
adviser. 

Ivar  Vidfadme  came  to  Scania  after  the  fall  of  his 
ofiiigkid  imcle  Gudrod,  and  collected  an  army  in  all  haste,  and 
the  Bad's     movcd  with  it  into  Sweden.     Aasa  had  gone  to  her 

death.  .  .  . 

father  before.  King  Ingiald  was  at  a  feast  inRsening*, 
when  he  heard  that  King  Ivar's  army  was  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Ingiald  thought  he  had  not  strength 
to  go  into  battle  against  Ivar,  and  he  saw  well  that  if 
he  betook  himself  to  flight  his  enemies  would  swarm 
around  him  from  all  corners.  He  and  Aasa  took  a 
resolution  which  has  become  celebrated.  They  drank 
until  all  their  people  were  dead  drunk,  and  then  put 
fire  to  the  hall ;  and  it  was  consumed,  with  all  who 
were  in  it,  including  themselves,  King  Ingiald,  and 
Aasa.     Thus  says  Thiodolf:  — 

"  AVith  fiery  feet  devouring  flame 
Has  hunted  down  a  royal  game 
At  Raening,  where  King  Ingiald  gave 
To  all  his  men  one  glowing  grave. 
On  his  own  hearth  the  fire  he  raised, 
A  deed  his  foemen  even  praised ; 
By  his  own  hand  he  perished  so, 
And  life  for  freedom  did  forego." 


*  Ranninge,  a  village  in  Fogd  isle,  in  the  Maelare  lake,  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  Raening  of  the  saga.  A  large  circle  of  stones,  or  a 
wall,  remains,  still  called  Ranningsborg,  on  a  heath. 


XLV. 
Of  Ivar. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  255 

Ivar  Viclfadme  subdued  the  whole  of  Sweden.  He  saoa  i. 
brought  in  subjection  to  himself  all  the  Danish  do-  chapter 
minions,  a  great  deal  of  Saxonland,  all  the  East 
country,  and  a  fifth  part  of  England.  From  his  race 
the  kings  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  who  have  had  the 
supreme  authority  in  those  countries,  are  descended. 
After  Ingiald  the  Evil-adviser  the  Upsal  dominion 
fell  from  the  Yngve  race,  notwithstanding  the  length 
of  time  they  could  reckon  up  the  series  of  their  fore- 
fathers. 

When  Olaf,  King  IngiakVs  son,  heard  of  his  father's  xlv^ 
end,  he  went,  with  the  men  who  chose  to  follow  him,  of  oiaf 
to  Nerike ;  for  all  the  Swedish  community  rose  with  feUer/'^^" 
one  accord  to  drive  out  Ingiald' s  family  and  all  its 
friends.  Now,  when  the  Swedes  got  intelligence  of 
him  he  could  not  remain  there,  but  went  on  west- 
wards, through  the  forest,  to  a  river  which  comes 
from  the  north  and  falls  into  the  Venner  lake,  and 
is  called  Klar  River.  There  they  sat  themselves 
down,  turned  to,  and  cleared  the  woods,  burnt,  and 
then  settled  there.  Soon  there  Avere  great  districts, 
which  altogether  were  called  Vermeland ;  and  a  good 
living  was  to  be  made  there.  Now  when  it  was  told 
of  Olaf,  in  Sweden,  that  he  was  clearing  the  forests, 
they  laughed  at  his  proceedings,  and  called  him  the 
Tree-feller.  Olaf  got  a  wife  called  Solva,  or  Solveig, 
a  daughter  of  Halfdan  Guldtand,  westward  in  Soloer 
Islands.*  Halfdan  was  a  son  of  Solve  Solvesson,  who 
was  a  son  of  Solve  the  Old,  who  first  settled  on  these 
islands.  Olaf  Tree-feller's  mother  was  called  Gauthild, 
and  her  mother  was  Alofa,  daughter  of  Olaf  Skygne, 
king  in  Nerike.  Olaf  and  Solva  had  two  sons,  Ingiald 
and  Halfdan.  Halfdan  was  brought  up  in  Soloer 
Isles,  in  the  house  of  his  mother's  brother  Solve,  and 
was  called  Halfdan  Huitbein. 

*  Soleyar  was  a  district  comprehending  some  of  the  continent,  as  well 
as  the  group  of  islands  now  called  Soloer. 


256 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  I. 

Chapter 
XLVII. 
Olaf  the 
Tree-feller 
burned. 


Chapter 

XLviir. 

Halfdan 
Huitbein 
made  king. 


There  were  a  great  many  people  who  fled  the  coun- 
try from  SAveden,  on  account  of  King  Ivar ;  and  when 
they  heard  that  King  Olaf  had  got  good  lands  in 
Yermeland,  so  great  a  number  came  there  to  him 
that  the  land  could  not  support  them.  Then  there 
came  dear  times  and  famine,  which  they  ascribed  to 
their  king ;  as  the  Swedes  used  always  to  reckon  good 
or  bad  crops  for  or  against  their  kings.  The  Swedes 
took  it  amiss  that  Olaf  was  sparing  in  his  sacrifices, 
and  believed  the  dear  times  must  proceed  from  this 
cause.  The  Swedes  therefore  gathered  together  troops, 
made  an  expedition  against  King  Olaf,  surrounded  his 
house,  and  burnt  him  in  it,  giving  him  to  Odin  as  a 
sacrifice  for  good  crops.  This  happened  at  the  Venner 
lake.     Thus  tells  Thiodolf  of  it :  — 

"  The  temple  wolf*,  by  the  lake  shores. 
The  corpse  of  Olaf  now  devours. 
The  clearer  of  the  forests  j"  died 
At  Odin's  shrine  by  the  lake  side. 
The  glowing  flames  stripped  to  the  skin 
The  royal  robes  from  the  Swedes'  king. 
Thus  Olaf,  famed  in  days  of  yore. 
Vanished  from  earth  at  Venner's  shore." 

Those  of  the  S^vedes  who  had  more  understanding 
found  that  the  dear  times  proceeded  from  there  being 
a  greater  number  of  people  on  the  land  than  it  could 
support,  and  that  the  king  could  not  be  blamed  for 
this.  They  took  the  resolution,  therefore,  to  cross  the 
Eida  forest  J  with  all  their  men,  and  came  quite  un- 
expectedly into  Soloer,  where  they  put  to  death  King 
Solve,  and  took  Halfdan  Huitbein  prisoner,  and  made 
him  their  chief,  and  gave  him  the  title  of  king. 
Thereupon  he  subdued  Soloer,  and  proceeding  with 
his  army  into  Raumarige,  plundered  there,  and  laid 
that  district  also  in  subjection  by  force  of  arms. 

*  The  temple  wolf  —  the  fire  which  devoured  the  body  of  Olaf. 
t  Olaf  was  called  the  Tree-feller. 

1  Eydiskogr,  a  great  uninhabited  forest,  which  then,  and  to  a  late 
period,  covered  the  frontier  of  Norway  towards  Sweden  on  the  south. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  257 

Halfdan  Huitbein  became  a  great  king.     He  was     saga  i. 
married  to  Asa,  a  daughter  of  Eystein  the  Severe,     Chaiter, 
who  was  king  of  the  Upland  people,  and  ruled  over  ofulman 
Hedemark.     Halfdan  and  Asa  had  two  sons,  Eystein  Huitbein. 
and  Gudrod.     Halfdan  subdued  a  great  part  of  Hede- 
mark, Thoten,   Hadeland,   and  much   of  Westfold.* 
He  lived  to  be  an  old  man,  and  died  in  his  bed  at 
Thoten,  from  whence  his  body  was  transported  to 
Westfold,  and  was  buried  under  a  mound  at  a  place 
called  Ska3rid,  at  Skiringsall.f     So  says  Thiodolf:  — 

"  Halfdan,  esteemed  by  friends  and  foes. 
Receives  at  last  life's  deep  repose  : 
The  aged  man  at  last,  though  late. 
Yielded  in  Thoten  to  stern  fate. 
At  Skiringsal  hangs  o'er  his  grave 
A  rock,  that  seems  to  mourn  the  brave. 
Halfdan,  to  chiefs  and  people  dear. 
Received  from  all  a  silent  tear." 

Ingiald,  Halfdan's  brother,  was  king  of  Ya3rmeland ;  Chapter 
but  after  his  death  King  Halfdan  took  possession  of  of  iJ^iaid 
Vaarmeland,  raised  scatt  from  it,  and  placed  earls  over  brother  of 

. ,  -i  ITT  Halfdan. 

it  as  long  as  he  lived. 

Eystein,  Halfdan  Huitbein's  son,  became  king  after  Chapter 

in    Raumarige  and   Westfold.      He  was   married  to  ofKi'ng 

Hilde,  a  dau2:hter  of  Eric  A2:narson,  who  was  kine:  in  Eystein's 

.  ^  death 

Westfold.    Agnar,  Eric's  father,  was  a  son  of  Sigtryg, 

*  Hedemark,  Thoten,  Hadeland,  Westfold,  and  the  Uplands  or  High- 
lands, are  all  districts  in  Norway,  and  in  the  south  of  Norway ;  except 
the  Uplands,  which  apparently  included  the  upper  parts  of  the  valleys 
of  which  the  waters  flow  northwards  from  the  dividing  ridge,  the 
Dovrefield. 

j"  Skiringssalr  is  rather  a  place  of  note.  It  is  called  "  Sciringeshael  '* 
in  the  Voyage  of  Ottar  of  Halogaland,  written  by  our  King  Alfred  in 
the  end  of  the  9th  century,  and  the  most  learned  antiquaries  have  been 
puzzled  where  to  look  for  it.  Scania,  the  neighbourhood  of  Stockholm, 
and  even  Prussia,  have  been  considered  the  true  locality  of  this  ancient 
seat  of  trade.  The  Norwegian  antiquary  Jacob  Aal,  in  his  translation 
of  Snorro,  places  Skiringssalr  in  Westfold,  in  Tiolling  parish,  in  the 
bailiwick  of  Laurvig;  and  the  situation,  access,  ancient  names,  and 
remains  of  tumuli  around,  make  this  the  probable  site  of  the  merchant 
town  of  Sciringshael. 

VOL.  I.  S 


258  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  I.  king  in  the  Vend  district.  King  Eric  had  no  son,  and 
died  while  King  Halfdan  Huitbein  was  still  in  life. 
The  father  and  son,  Halfdan  and  Ey stein,  then  took 
possession  of  the  whole  of  Westfold,  which  Eystein 
ruled  over  as  long  as  he  lived.  At  that  time  there 
lived  at  Yarna  a  king  called  Skiold,  who  was  a  great 
warlock.  King  Eystein  went  with  some  ships  of  war 
to  Varna,  plundered  there,  and  carried  away  all  he 
could  find  of  clothes  or  other  valuables,  and  of  pea- 
sants' stock,  and  killed  cattle  on  the  strand  for  pro- 
vision, and  then  went  off.  King  Skiold  came  to  the 
strand  with  his  army,  just  as  Eystein  was  at  such  a 
distance  over  the  fiord  that  King  Skiold  could  only 
see  his  sails.  Then  he  took  his  cloak,  waved  it,  and 
blew  into  it.  King  Eystein  was  sitting  at  the  helm 
as  they  sailed  within  the  Earl  Isles,  and  another  ship 
was  sailing  at  the  side  of  his,  when  there  came  a  stroke 
of  a  wave,  by  which  the  boom  of  the  other  ship  struck 
the  king  and  threw  him  overboard,  which  proved  his 
death.  His  men  fished  up  his  body,  and  it  was  car- 
ried into  Borre,  where  a  mound  was  thrown  up  over 
it,  upon  a  cleared  field  out  towards  the  sea  at  Vodle.* 
So  says  Thiodolf:  — 

"  King  Eystein  sat  upon  the  poop 

Of  his  good  ship  :   with  sudden  swoop 
The  swinging  boom  dashed  him  to  hell. 
And  fathoms  deep  the  hero  fell 
Beneath  the  brine.     The  fury  whirl 
Of  Lokkef,  Tempest's  brother's  girl, 
Grim  Haele,  clutched  his  soul  away; 
And  now  where  Vodle's  ocean  bay 
Receives  the  ice-cold  stream,  the  grave 
Of  Eystein  stands,  —  the  good,  the  brave  ! " 


*  Now  the  farm  Void,  on  which  the  mounds  of  Eystein  and  his  son 
Halfdan  and  others  still  remain.  It  adjoins  Borre,  about  six  miles  from 
Tunsberg. 

f  Lokke  (the  evil  principle)  was  brother  of  Bileister,  the  god  of 
tempests ;  and  Lokke' s  daughter  was  Haele,  —  from  which  probably  our 
word  Hell,  the  abode  of  evil  spirits,  is  derived. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  259 

Halfdan  was  the  name  of  King  Eystein's  son  who     saga  i. 
succeeded  him.    He  was  called  Halfdan  the  Mild,  but    Chapter 
the  Bad  Entertainer;  that  is  to  say,  he  was  reported  of^jaif- 
to  be  generous,  and  to  give  his  men  as  much  gold  as  ^an  the 
other  kings  gave  of  silver,  but  he  starved  them  in 
their  diet.     He  was  a  great  warrior,  who  had  been 
long  on  viking  cruises,  and  had  collected  great  pro- 
perty.    He  was  married  to  Hlif,  a  daughter  of  King 
Dag  of  Westmor.     Holtar,  in  Westfold,  was  his  chief 
house ;  and  he  died  there  on  the  bed  of  sickness,  and 
was   buried   at   Borre   under   a   mound.       So    says 
Thiodolf :  — 

'^  By  Hsele's  summons,  a  great  king 
Was  called  away  to  Odin's  Thing: 
King  Halfdan,  he  who  dwelt  of  late 
At  Holtar,  must  obey  grim  Fate. 
At  Borre,  in  the  royal  mound. 
They  laid  the  hero  in  the  ground." 

Gudrod,  Halfdan's  son,  succeeded.     He  was  called    Chapter 

.  LIII 

Gudrod  the  Magnificent,  and  also  Gudrod  the  Hunter,  of  Gudrod 
He  was  married  to  Alf  hild,  a  daughter  of  King  Alfarin  *^^  Hunter, 
of  Alf  heim,  and  got  with  her  half  the  district  of  Yin- 
gulmark.  Their  son  Olaf  was  afterwards  called 
Geirstad-Alf.  Alfheim,  at  that  time,  was  the  name 
of  the  land  between  the  Glommen  and  Gotha  rivers. 
Now  when  Alf  hild  died.  King  Gudrod  sent  his  men 
west  to  Agder  to  the  king  who  ruled  there,  and  who 
was  called  Harald  Redbeard.  They  were  to  make 
proposals  to  his  daughter  Aasa  upon  the  king's  ac- 
count; but  Harald  declined  the  match,  and  the  am- 
bassadors returned  to  the  king,  and  told  him  the 
result  of  their  errand.  Soon  after  King  Gudrod  hove 
down  his  ships  into  the  water,  and  proceeded  with 
a  great  force  in  them  to  Agder.  He  immediately 
landed,  and  came  altogether  unexpectedly,  at  night, 
to  King  Harald' s  house.  When  Harald  was  aware 
that  an  army  was  at  hand,  he  went  out  with  the  men 

s  2 


260 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  I. 


Chapter 
LIV. 
Of  King 
Olaf's 
death. 


he  had  about  him,  and  there  was  a  great  battle,  al- 
though he  wanted  men  so  much.  King  Harald  and 
his  son  Gyrder  fell,  and  King  Gudrod  took  a  great 
booty.  He  carried  away  with  him  Aasa,  King  Ha- 
rald's  daughter,  and  had  a  wedding  with  her.  They 
had  a  son  by  their  marriage  called  Halfdan ;  and  the 
autumn  that  Halfdan  was  a  year  old  Gudrod  went 
upon  a  round  of  feasts.  He  lay  Avith  his  ship  in  Stifle- 
sound,  where  they  had  been  drinking  hard,  so  that 
the  king  was  very  tipsy.  In  the  evening,  about  dark, 
the  king  left  the  ship ;  and  when  he  had  got  to  the 
end  of  the  gangway  from  the  ship  to  the  shore*,  a 
man  ran  against  him,  thrust  a  spear  through  him, 
and  killed  him.  The  man  was  instantly  put  to  death, 
and  in  the  morning  when  it  was  light  the  man  was 
discovered  to  be  Aasa's  footboy :  nor  did  she  conceal 
that  it  was  done  by  her  orders.  Thus  tells  Thiodolf 
of  it:  — 

"  Gudrod  is  gone  to  his  long  rest. 
Despite  of  all  his  haughty  pride,  — 
A  traitor's  spear  has  pierced  his  side : 
For  Aasa  cherished  in  her  breast 
Revenge  ;  and  as,  by  wine  opprest. 
The  hero  staggered  from  his  ship, 
The  cruel  queen  her  thrall  let  slip 
To  do  the  deed  of  which  I  sing : 
And  now  the  far-descended  king. 
At  Stifflesund,  in  the  old  bed 
Of  the  old  Gudrod  race,  lies  dead." 

Olaf  came  to  the  kingdom  after  his  father.  He  was 
a  great  warrior,  and  an  able  man ;  and  was  besides 
remarkably  handsome,  very  strong,  and  large  of 
growth.  He  had  Westfold ;  for  King  Alfgeir  took  all 
Vingulmark  to  himself,  and  placed  his  son  Gandalf 
over  it.  Both  father  and  son  made  war  on  Raumarige, 
and  subdued  the  greater  part  of  that  land  and  dis- 

*  The  ships  appear  generally  to  have  been  laid  all  night  close  to  or 
at  the  shore,  with  a  gangway  to  land  by;  and  the  crew  appear  to  have 
had  tents  on  shore  to  pass  the  night  in. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


261 


trict.  Hogne  was  the  name  of  a  son  of  the  Upland 
king,  Eystein  the  Great,  who  subdued  for  himself  the 
whole  of  Hedemark,  Thoten,  and  Hadeland.  Then 
VaBrmeland  fell  oiF  from  Gudrod's  sons,  and  turned 
itself,  with  its  payment  of  scatt,  to  the  Swedish  king. 
Olaf  was  about  twenty  years  old  when  Gudrod  died ; 
and  as  his  brother  Halfdan  noAv  had  the  kingdom 
with  him,  they  divided  it  between  them ;  so  that  Olaf 
got  the  eastern,  and  Halfdan  the  southern  part.  King 
Olaf  had  his  main  residence  at  Gairstad.*  There  he 
died  of  a  disease  in  his  foot,  and  was  laid  under  a 
mound  at  Gairstad.     So  sings  Thiodolf:  — 

"  Long  while  this  branch  of  Odin's  stem 
Was  the  stout  prop  of  Norway's  realm  ; 
Long  while  King  Olaf  with  just  pride 
Ruled  over  Westfold  far  and  wide. 
At  length  by  cruel  gout  oppressed. 
The  good  King  Olaf  sank  to  rest : 
His  body  now  lies  under  ground. 
Buried  at  Gierstad,  in  the  mound." 

Kognvald  was  the  name  of  Olaf 's  son  who  was  king 
of  Westfold  after  his  father.  He  was  called  ''  Moun- 
tain-high," and  Thiodolf  of  Huina  composed  for  him 
the  "  Ynglinga-tal  f ; "  in  which  he  says  — 

^'  Under  the  heaven's  blue  dome,  a  name 
I  never  knew  more  true  to  fame 
Than  Rognvald  bore ;  whose  skilful  hand 
Could  tame  the  scorners  of  the  land,  — 
Rognvald,  who  knew  so  well  to  guide 
The  wild  sea-horses  J  through  the  tide  : 
The  '  Mountain-high  '  was  the  proud  name 
By  which  the  king  was  known  to  fame." 

*  Geirstadir.  This  ancient  seat  of  royalty  in  small  is  now  sup- 
posed to  have  been  a  farm  called  Gierrestad,  in  the  same  parish,  TioUing, 
in  which  Skiringssalr  was  situated. 

j"  Ynglinga-tal  —  the  succession  of  the  Yngling  race.  Our  word 
Tale  applied  to  numbers,  as  things  told  over  one  by  one,  appears  con- 
nected with  this  word. 

\  The  wild  sea-horses  —  ships,  which  are  generally  called  the  horses 
of  the  ocean  in  scaldic  poetry. 


SAGA  I. 


CHAPTEa 

LV. 

Of  Rogn- 
vald the 
Mountain- 
hiffh. 


s  3 


2G2 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


11. 


SAGA  II. 


HALFDAN  THE  BLACK'S  SAGA.* 


and  Sig- 
tryg. 


Chapter  Haledan  was  a  year  old  when  his  father  was  killed, 
Haifdan  ^^^  ^^^  Hiother  Aasa  set  oiF  immediately  with  him 
fights  with  westwards  to  Agder,  and  set  herself  there  in  the 
kingdom  which  her  father  Harald  had  possessed. 
Haifdan  grew  up  there,  and  soon  became  stout  and 
strong  ;  and,  by  reason  of  his  black  hair,  was  called 
Haifdan  the  Black.  When  he  was  eighteen  years  old 
he  took  his  kingdom  in  Agder,  and  went  immediately 
to  Westfold,  where  he  divided  that  kingdom,  as  before 
related,  with  his  brother  Olaf.  The  same  autumn 
he  went  with  an  army  to  Yingulmark  against  King 
Gandalf.  They  had  many  battles,  and  sometimes 
one,  sometimes  the  other  gained  the  victory ;  but  at 
last  they  agreed  that  Haifdan  should  have  half  of 
Vingulmark,  as  his  father  Gudrod  had  had  it  before. 
Then  King  Haifdan  proceeded  to  Raumarige,  and 
subdued  it.  King  Sigtryg,  son  of  King  Ey stein,  who 
then  had  his  residence  in  Hedemark,  and  who  had 


*  Haifdan  the  Black  reigned  from  about  the  year  841  to  about  863. 
In  the  preceding  Saga  of  the  Yngling  race,  there  are  but  few  points  to 
be  fixed  down  as  historical  by  dates  and  coincidences  with  other  history  ; 
and  the  earlier  part  of  it  belongs  to  mythology,  not  to  history.  Facts 
there  are — we  hold  them  to  be  facts  only  because  they  are  not  extra- 
vagant enough  to  be  fables — intermingled  with  the  mythological  ac- 
counts of  Odin  and  his  times  ;  but  Snorro  with  great  judgment  goes 
over  this  period  rapidly,  and  comes  as  quickly  as  possible  to  the  period 
when  authentic  history  begins  to  dawn,  —  to  the  reigns  of  Haifdan  and 
Harald  Haarfager.  Their  royal  derivation  from  the  Yngve  race  (the 
Ynglingens)  could  not  be  omitted;  but  Snorro  hastens  over  it,  as  only  a 
necessary  preface  to  his  more  authentic  narratives. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  263 

subdued  Kaumarige  before,  having  heard  of  this,  saga  it. 
came  out  with  his  army  against  King  Halfdan,  and 
there  was  a  great  battle,  in  which  King  Halfdan  was 
victorious  ;  and  just  as  King  Sigtryg  and  his  troops 
were  turning  about  to  fly,  an  arrow  struck  him  under 
the  left  arm,  and  he  fell  dead.  Halfdan  then  laid  the 
whole  of  Eaumarige  under  his  power.  King  Eystein's 
second  son,  King  Sigtryg' s  brother,  was  also  called 
Eystein,  and  was  then  king  in  Hedemark.  As  soon 
as  Halfdan  had  returned  to  Westfold,  King  Eystein 
went  out  with  his  army  to  Raumarige,  and  laid  the 
whole  country  in  subjection  to  him. 

When  Kinsr  Halfdan  heard  of  these  disturbances  in    Chapter 

T  T 

Raumarige,  he  again  gathered  his  army  together ;  and  Battle  be- 
went  out  against  King  Eystein.     A  battle  took  place  tT'',^" 
between  them,  and  Halfdan  gained  the  victory,  and  and 
Eystein  fled  up  to  Hedemark,  pursued  by  Halfdan.  -^y^*^^"* 
Another  battle  took  place,  in  which  Halfdan  was  again 
victorious ;  and  Eystein  fled  northwards,  up  the  valley 
to  the  Herse  *  Gudbrand.     There  he  was  strengthened 
with   new   people,  and   in  winter   he  went  towards 
Hedemark,  and  met  Halfdan  the  Black  upon  a  large 
island  which  lies  in  the  Myosen  lake.     There  a  great 
battle  was  fought,  and  many  people  on  both  sides  were 
slain,  but  Halfdan  won  the  victory.   There  fell  Guttorm, 
the  son  of  the  Herse  Gudbrand,  who  was  one  of  the 
finest  men  in  the  Uplands.     Then  Eystein  fled  north 
up  the  valley,  and  sent  his  relation  Halvard  Skalk  to 
King  Halfdan  to  beg  for  peace.     On  consideration  of 
their  relationship.  King  Halfdan  gave  King  Eystein 
half  of  Hedemark,  which  he   and  his  relations  had 
held  before ;   but  kept  to  himself  Thoten,   and  the 
land  so  called.     He  likewise  appropriated  to  himself 


*  Herser,  syr,  ser^  appear  words  of  a  common  origin,  expressing  no 
rank  or  office,  — like  earl,  baron,  lenderman,  —  but  the  social  distinction 
given  to  persons  of  consideration  and  influence. 

s  4 


264 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  II. 


Chapter 
III. 
Halfdan's 
marriage. 


Chapter 
IV. 

Halfdan's 
strife  with 
Gandalf's 
sons. 


Had  eland  ;  and  he  plundered  far  and  wide  around, 
and  was  become  a  mighty  king. 

Halfdan  the  Black  got  a  wife  called  Ragnhild,  a 
daughter  of  Harald  Goldbeard,  who  was  a  king  in 
Sogn.  They  had  a  son,  to  whom  Harald  gave  his  own 
name  ;  and  the  boy  was  brought  up  in  Sogn,  by  his 
mother's  father,  King  Harald.  Now  when  this  Harald 
had  lived  out  his  days  nearly,  and  was  become  weak, 
having  no  son,  he  gave  his  dominions  to  his  daughter's 
son  Harald,  and  gave  him  his  title  of  king ;  and  he  died 
soon  after.  The  same  winter  his  daughter  Ragnhild 
died ;  and  the  following  spring  the  young  Harald  fell 
sick,  and  died  at  ten  years  of  age.  As  soon  as  Halfdan 
the  Black  heard  of  his  son's  death,  he  took  the  road 
northwards  to  Sogn  with  a  great  force,  and  was  well 
received.  He  claimed  the  heritage  and  dominion 
after  his  son ;  and  no  opposition  being  made,  he  took 
the  whole  kingdom.  Earl  Atle  the  Small,  who  was 
a  friend  of  King  Halfdan,  came  to  him  from  Gaular; 
and  the  king  set  him  over  the  Sogn  district,  to  judge 
in  the  country  according  to  the  country's  laws,  and 
collect  scatt  upon  the  king's  account.  Thereafter 
King  Halfdan  proceeded  to  his  kingdom  in  the  Up- 
lands. 

In  autumn,  King  Halfdan  proceeded  to  Yingul- 
mark.  One  night  when  he  was  there  in  guest  quar- 
ters, it  happened  that  about  midnight  a  man  came  to 
him  who  had  been  on  the  watch  on  horseback,  and 
told  him  a  Avar  force  was  come  near  to  the  house. 
The  king  instantly  got  up,  ordered  his  men  to  arm 
themselves,  and  went  out  of  tlie  house  and  drew 
them  up  in  battle  order.  At  the  same  moment, 
Gandalf's  sons,  Hysing  and  Helsing,  made  their  ap- 
pearance with  a  large  army.  There  was  a  great 
battle ;  but  Halfdan  being  overpowered  by  the  num- 
bers of  people,  fled  to  the  forest,  leaving  many  of  his 
men  on  this  spot.     His  foster-father,  Olver  the  Wise, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  265 

fell  here.  The  people  now  came  in  swarms  to  King  saga  h. 
Halfdan,  and  he  advanced  to  seek  Gandalf  s  sons. 
They  met  on  the  neck  of  land  at  Eyne,  and  fought 
there.  Hysing  and  Helsing  fell,  and  their  brother 
Hake  saved  himself  by  flight.  King  Halfdan  then 
took  possession  of  the  whole  of  Vingulmark,  and  Hake 
fled  to  Alfheim. 

Sigurd  Hiort  was  the  name  of  a  king  in  Ringerige,    Chapter 
who  was  stouter  and  stronger  than  any  other  man,  Kingiiaif- 
and  his  equal  could  not  be  seen  for  a  handsome  ap-  d^^'^.^^^* 

i-  \       marriage 

pearance.  His  father  was  Helge  the  Sharp ;  and  his  with 
mother  was  Aslaug,  a  daughter  of  Sigurd  the  Worm-  iifo/t's 
eyed.  It  is  told  of  Sigurd,  that  when  he  was  only  daughter, 
twelve  years  old  he  killed  in  single  combat  the  Ber- 
saerker  Hildebrand,  and  eleven  others  of  his  comrades ; 
and  many  are  the  deeds  of  manhood  told  of  him  in  a 
long  saga  about  his  feats.  Sigurd  had  two  children, 
one  of  Avhom  was  a  daughter,  called  Ragnhild,  then 
twenty  years  of  age,  and  an  excellent  brisk  girl. 
Her  brother  Guttorm  was  a  youth.  It  is  related  that 
Sigurd  had  a  custom  of  riding  out  quite  alone  in  the 
uninhabited  forest  to  hunt  the  wild  beasts  that  are 
hurtful  to  man,  and  he  was  always  very  eager  at  this 
sport.  One  day  he  rode  out  into  the  forest  as  usual, 
and  when  he  had  ridden  a  long  way  he  came  out  at 
a  piece  of  cleared  land  near  to  Hadeland.  There  the 
Bersa3rker  Hake  came  against  him  mth  thirty  men, 
and  they  fought.  Sigurd  Hiort  fell  there,  after  killing 
twelve  of  Hake's  men ;  and  Hake  himself  lost  one  hand, 
and  had  three  other  wounds.  Then  Hake  and  his 
men  rode  to  Sigurd's  house,  where  they  took  his 
daughter  Ragnhild  and  her  brother  Guttorm,  and 
carried  them,  with  much  property  and  valuable  ar- 
ticles, home  to  Hadeland,  where  Hake  had  many  great 
farms.  He  ordered  a  feast  to  be  prepared,  intending 
to  hold  his  wedding  mth  Ragnhild  ;  but  the  time 
passed    on    account   of    his   wounds,    which   healed 


266  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  II.  slowly ;  and  the  Bersaerker  Hake  of  Hadeland  had  to 
keep  his  bed,  on  account  of  his  wounds,  all  the  au- 
^  tumn  and  beginning  of  winter.  Now  King  Halfdan 
was  in  Hedemark  at  the  Yule  entertainments  when 
he  heard  this  news ;  and  one  morning  early,  when  the 
king  was  dressed,  he  called  to  him  Harek  Gand,  and 
told  him  to  go  over  to  Hadeland,  and  bring  him 
Kagnhild,  Sigurd  Hiort's  daughter.  Harek  got  ready 
with  a  hundred  men,  and  made  his  journey  so  that 
they  came  over  the  lake  to  Hake's  house  in  the  grey 
of  the  morning,  and  beset  all  the  doors  and  stairs  of 
the  places  where  the  house-servants  slept.  Then  they 
broke  into  the  sleeping-room  where  Hake  slept,  took 
Ragnhild,  with  her  brother  Guttorm,  and  all  the  goods 
that  were  there,  and  set  fire  to  the  house-servants' 
place,  and  burnt  all  the  people  in  it.  Then  they  co- 
vered over  a  magnificent  waggon,  placed  Eagnhild 
and  Guttorm  in  it,  and  drove  down  upon  the  ice. 
Hake  got  up  and  went  after  them  a  while ;  but  when 
he  came  to  the  ice  on  the  lake,  he  turned  his  sword- 
hilt  to  the  ground  and  let  himself  fall  upon  the  point, 
so  that  the  sword  went  through  him.  He  was  buried 
under  a  mound  on  the  banks  of  the  lake.  When  King 
Halfdan,  who  was  very  quick  of  sight,  saw  the  party 
returning  over  the  frozen  lake,  and  with  a  covered 
waggon,  he  knew  that  their  errand  was  accomphshed 
according  to  his  desire.  Thereupon  he  ordered  the 
tables  to  be  set  out,  and  sent  people  all  round  in  the 
neighbourhood  to  invite  plenty  of  guests ;  and  the 
same  day  there  was  a  good  feast  which  was  also 
Halfdan's  marriage-feast  with  Ragnhild,  who  became 
a  great  queen.  Ragnhild' s  mother  was  Thyrni,  a 
daughter  of  Harald  Klak,  king  in  Jutland,  and  a 
sister  of  Thyri  Dannebod,  who  was  married  to  the 
Danish  king,  Gorm  the  Old,  who  then  ruled  over  the 
Danish  dominions. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  267 

Ragnhild,  who  was  wise   and   intelligent,   dreamt     saga^h. 
sfreat   dreams.     She    dreamt,  for   one,  that  she  was    Chapter 

VI 

standing  out  in  her  herb-garden,  and  she  took  a  thorn  of  iiagn. 
out  of  her  shift ;  but  while  she  was  holding  the  thorn  Jjj^Jj^'^ 
in  her  hand  it  grew  so  that  it  became  a  great  tree, 
one  end  of  which  struck  itself  down  into  the  earth, 
and  it  became  firmly  rooted ;  and  the  other  end  of  the 
tree  raised  itself  so  high  in  the  air  that  she  could 
scarcely  see  over  it,  and  it  became  also  wonderfully 
thick.  The  under  part  of  the  tree  was  red  with  blood, 
but  the  stem  upwards  was  beautifully  green,  and  the 
branches  white  as  snow.  There  were  many  and  great 
limbs  to  the  tree,  some  high  up,  others  low  down ;  and 
so  vast  was  the  tree's  foliage  that  it  seemed  to  her  to 
cover  all  Norway,  and  even  much  more. 

King  Halfdan  never  had  dreams,  which  appeared    Chapter 
to  him  an  extraordinary  circumstance ;  and  he  told  it  of  Haif- 
to  a  man  called  Thorlief  the  Wise,  and  asked  him  ^^"'^ 

.  .  dream. 

what  his  advice  was  about  it.  Thorlief  said  that  what 
he  himself  did,  when  he  wanted  to  have  any  revelation 
by  dream,  was  to  take  his  sleep  in  a  swine-stye,  and 
then  it  never  failed  that  he  had  dreams.  The  king 
did  so,  and  the  following  dream  was  revealed  to  him. 
He  thought  he  had  the  most  beautiful  hair,  which  was 
all  in  ringlets  ;  some  so  long  as  to  fall  upon  the  ground, 
some  reaching  to  the  middle  of  his  legs,  some  to  his 
knees,  some  to  his  loins  or  the  middle  of  his  sides, 
some  to  his  neck,  and  some  were  only  as  knots  spring- 
ing from  his  head.  These  ringlets  were  of  various 
colours ;  but  one  ringlet  surpassed  all  the  others  in 
beauty,  lustre,  and  size.  This  dream  he  told  to  Thor- 
lief, who  interpreted  it  thus : — There  should  be  a  great 
posterity  from  him,  and  his  descendants  should  rule 
over  countries  with  great,  but  not  all  with  equally 
great  honour ;  but  one  of  his  race  should  be  more 
celebrated  than  all  the  others.     It  was  the  opinion 


268 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  II. 


Chapter 
VIII. 

Halfdan's 
meat  va- 
nishes at  a 
feast. 


of  people  that  this  ringlet  betokened  King  Olaf  the 
Saint. 

King  Half  dan  was  a  mse  man,  a  man  of  truth  and 
uprightness — who  made  laws,  observed  them  himself, 
and  obliged  others  to  observe  them.  And  that  vio- 
lence should  not  come  in  place  of  the  laws,  he  himself 
fixed  the  number  of  criminal  acts  in  law,  and  the 
compensations,  mulcts,  or  penalties,  for  each  case, 
according  to  every  one's  birth  and  dignity.* 

Queen  Ragnhild  gave  birth  to  a  son,  and  water  was 
poured  over  him,  and  the  name  of  Harald  given  him, 
and  he  soon  grew  stout  and  remarkably  handsome. 
As  he  grew  up  he  became  very  expert  at  all  feats, 
and  showed  also  a  good  understanding.  He  was 
much  beloved  by  his  mother,  but  less  so  by  his 
father. 

King  Halfdan  was  at  a  Yule-feast  in  Hadeland, 
where  a  wonderful  thing  happened  one  Yulef  evening. 
When  the  great  number  of  guests  assembled  were 
going  to  sit  down  to  table,  all  the  meat  and  all  liquors 
disappeared  from  the  table.     The  king  sat  alone  very 


*  The  penalty,  compensation,  or  manbod  for  every  injury,  due  to  the 
party  injured,  or  to  his  family  and  next  of  kin  if  the  injury  was  the 
death  or  premeditated  murder  of  the  party,  appears  to  have  been  fixed 
for  every  rank  and  condition,  from  the  murder  of  the  king  down 
to  the  maiming  or  beating  a  man's  cattle  or  his  slave.  A  man  for 
whom  no  compensation  was  due  was  a  dishonoured  person,  or  an  out- 
law. It  appears  to  have  been  optional  with  the  injured  party,  or  his 
kin  if  he  had  been  killed,  to  take  the  mulct  or  compensation,  or  to  re- 
fuse it,  and  wait  an  opportunity  of  taking  vengeance  for  the  injury  on 
the  party  who  inflicted  it,  or  on  his  kin.  A  part  of  each  mulct  or 
compensation  was  due  to  the  king ;  and  these  fines  or  penalties  appear 
to  have  constituted  a  great  proportion  of  the  king's  revenues,  and  to 
have  been  settled  in  the  Things  held  in  every  district  for  administering 
the  law  with  the  lagman. 

I  The  feast  of  Jiolner,  one  of  the  names  of  Thor,  was  celebrated 
by  the  pagan  Northmen  in  mid- winter ;  and  the  name  of  Yule  and  the 
festivity  were  made  to  coincide  with  the  Christmas  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  which  is  called  Yule  all  over  the  North,  from  Jiolner.  In  Scot- 
land, as  well  as  in  Scandinavia,  Yule  is  the  name  given  to  the  Christmas 
holidays. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  269 

confused  in  mind ;  all  the  others  set  off,  each  to  his  saga  n. 
home,  in  consternation.  That  the  king  might  come 
to  some  certainty  about  what  had  occasioned  this 
event,  he  ordered  a  Laplander  to  be  seized  who  was 
particularly  knowing,  and  tried  to  force  him  to  dis- 
close the  truth ;  but  however  much  he  tortured  the 
man,  he  got  nothing  out  of  him.  The  Laplander 
sought  help  particularly  from  Harald,  the  king's  son; 
and  Harald  begged  for  mercy  for  him,  but  in  vain. 
Then  Harald  let  him  escape  against  the  king's  will, 
and  accompanied  the  man  himself.  On  their  journey 
they  came  to  a  place  where  the  man's  chief  had  a  great 
feast,  and  it  appears  they  were  well  received  there. 
When  they  had  been  there  until  spring,  the  chief 
said,  ""  Thy  father  took  it  much  amiss  that  in  winter 
I  took  some  provisions  from  him, — now  I  will  repay  it 
to  thee  by  a  joyful  piece  of  news  :  thy  father  is  dead ; 
and  now  thou  shalt  return  home,  and  take  possession 
of  the  whole  kingdom  which  he  had,  and  with  it  thou 
shalt  lay  the  whole  kingdom  of  Norway  under  thee." 

Halfdan  the  Black  was  driving  from  a  feast  in  Hade-     Chapter 
land,  and  it  so  happened  that  his  road  lay  over  the  Haifdan's 
lake  called  Rond.*     It  was  in  spring,  and  there  was  ^^^^^' 
a  great  thaw.     They  drove  across  the  bight  called 
Rykensvig,  Avhere  in  winter  there  had  been  a  pond 
broken  in  the  ice  for  cattle  to  drink  at,  and  where  the 
dung  had  fallen  upon  the  ice  the  thaw  had  eaten  it 
into  holes.     Now  as  the  king  drove  over  it  the  ice 
broke,  and  King  Halfdan  and  many  with  him  perished. 
He  was  then  forty  years  old.     He  had  been  one  of  the 
most  fortunate  kings  in  respect  of  good  seasons.    The 
people  thought  so  much  of  him,  that  when  his  death 
was  known,  and  his  body  was  floated  to  Ringerige  to 
bury  it  there,  the  people  of  most  consequence  from 

*  The  lake  now  called  Rands-fiord ;  and  the  bight  called  Rekonsvig 
is  at  a  farm  called  Roken. 


270  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  II.  Kaumarige,  Westfold,  and  Hedemark,  came  to  meet 
it.  All  desired  to  take  the  body  with  them  to  bury 
it  in  their  own  district,  and  they  thought  that  those 
who  got  it  would  have  good  crops  to  expect.  At  last 
it  was  agreed  to  divide  the  body  into  four  parts.  The 
head  was  laid  in  a  mound  at  Stein  in  Ringerige,  and 
each  of  the  others  took  his  part  home  and  laid  it  in  a 
mound  ;  and  these  have  since  been  called  Halfdan's 
Mounds. 


KINGS    OF    NOEWAY.  271 


III. 

HARALD  HAARFAGER'S  SAGA.* 


SAGA  III. 


Harald  was  but  ten  years  old  when  he  succeeded  his    chapter 
father   (Halfdan    the   Black).     He  became  a  stout,  Haraid's 
strong,  and    comely  man,  and  withal   prudent    and  HaUoTnd 
manly.     His  mother's  brother,  Guttorm,  was  regent  his  father 
over  the  court  and  country,  and  commander  of  the 
men-at-arms  of  the  court. f    After  Halfdan  the  Black's 
death,  many  chiefs  coveted  the  dominions  he  had  left. 
Among  these  King  Gandalf  was  the  first ;  then  Hogne 
and  Erode,  sons  of  Eystein,  king  of  Hedemark ;  and 
also  Hogne  Karason  came  from  Ringerige.     Hako, 
the  son  of  Gandalf,  began  with  an  expedition  of  300 
men  against  Westfold,  marched  round  the  head  of 
and  over  some  valleys,  and  expected  to  come  sud- 
denly upon  King  Harald;  while  his  father  Gandalf 
sat  at  home  with  his  army,  and  prepared  to  cross  over 
the  fiord  into  Westfold.     When  Guttorm  heard  of 
this   he   gathered   an   army,    and   marched   up    the 
country  with  King  Harald  against  Hako.     They  met 

*  Harald  Haarfager  reigned  from  about  the  year  86*1  to  about  the 
year  931.  Pinkerton  thinks  Torfaeus  dates  his  reign  thirty  years  too 
far  backj  and  that  Harald  Haarfager's  reign  began  in  9OO  or  910.  As  he 
agrees,  however,  in  placing  his  death  in  931  or  9^6,  the  only  difference 
between  the  two  antiquaries  is,  that  Torfaeus  begins  to  reckon  Haraid's 
reign  from  his  father's  death,  and  Pinkerton  from  the  subjugation  of  the 
small  kings,  by  which  he  became  sole  king  of  Norway. 

t  A  court  or  herd  about  the  king's  person  were  men-at-arms  of  the 
court  or  herd,  kept  in  pay,  and  holding  guard  by  night,  even  on  horse- 
back (see  Chapter  4.  of  the  preceding  Saga)  ;  and  appear  to  have  been 
an  establishment  coeval  with  the  kingly  power  itself.  This  kind  of 
paid  standing  army  must  have  existed  from  the  earliest  period,  where 
no  feudal  rights  over  vassals  or  retainers  could  give  the  king  or  his 
nobles  a  constant  command  of  armed  followers. 


272 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 
II. 
King  Ha- 
rald  over- 
comes five 
kings. 


Chapter 
III. 
Of  Gyda, 
daughter 
of  Eric. 


in  a  valley,  in  wliich  they  fought  a  great  battle,  and 
King  Harald  was  victorious ;  and  there  fell  King  Hako 
and  most  of  his  people.  The  place  has  since  been  called 
Hakodale.  Then  King  Harald  and  Guttorm  turned 
back,  but  they  found  King  Gandalf  had  come  to  West- 
fold.  The  two  armies  marched  against  each  other, 
and  met,  and  had  a  great  battle  ;  and  it  ended  in  King 
Gandalf  flying,  after  leaving  most  of  his  men  dead  on 
the  spot,  and  in  that  state  he  came  back  to  his  king- 
dom. Now  when  the  sons  of  King  Eystein  in  Hede- 
mark  heard  the  news,  they  expected  the  war  would 
come  upon  them,  and  they  sent  a  message  to  Hogne 
Karason  and  to  Herse  Gudbrand,  and  appointed  a 
meeting  with  them  at  Ringsager  in  Hedemark. 

After  the  battle  King  Harald  and  Guttorm  turned 
back,  and  went  with  all  the  men  they  could  gather 
through  the  forests  towards  the  Uplands.  They 
found  out  where  the  Upland  kings  had  appointed 
their  meeting-place,  and  came  there  about  the  time  of 
midnight,  without  the  watchmen  observing  them  un- 
til their  army  was  before  the  door  of  the  house  in 
which  Hogne  Karason  was,  as  well  as  that  in  which 
Gudbrand  slept.  They  set  Are  to  both  houses ;  but 
King  Eystein's  two  sons  slipped  out  with  their  men, 
and  fought  for  a  while,  until  both  Hogne  and  Erode 
fell.  After  the  fall  of  these  four  chiefs.  King  Harald, 
by  his  relation  Guttorm's  success  and  power,  subdued 
Hedemark,  Ringerige,  Gudbrandsdal,  Hadeland,  Tho- 
ten,  Raumarige,  and  the  whole  northern  part  of  Vin- 
gulmark.  King  Harald  and  Guttorm  had  thereafter 
war  with  King  Gandulf,  and  fought  several  battles 
with  hhn ;  and  in  the  last  of  them  King  Gandalf  was 
slain,  and  King  Harald  took  the  whole  of  his  kingdom 
as  far  south  as  the  Glommen. 

King  Harald  sent  his  men  to  a  girl  called  Gyda,  a 
daughter  of  King  Eric  of  Hordaland,  who  was  brought 
up  as  foster-child  in  the  house  of  a  great  bonder  in 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  273 

Valders.  The  king  wanted  her  for  his  concubine;  for  saga  m. 
she  was  a  remarkably  handsome  girl,  but  of  high 
spirit  withal.  Now  when  the  messengers  came  there, 
and  delivered  their  errand  to  the  girl,  she  answered, 
that  she  would  not  throw  herself  away  even  to  take  a 
king  for  her  husband,  who  had  no  greater  kingdom  to 
rule  over  than  a  few  districts.  "  And  methinks,"  said 
she,  "it  is  wonderful  that  no  king  here  in  Norway 
will  make  the  whole  country  subject  to  him,  in  the 
same  way  as  Gorm  the  Old  did  in  Denmark,  or  Eric 
at  Upsal."  The  messengers  thought  her  answer  was 
dreadfully  haughty,  and  asked  what  she  thought 
would  come  of  such  an  answer;  for  Harald  was  so 
mighty  a  man,  that  his  invitation  was  good  enough 
for  her.  But  although  she  had  replied  to  their  er- 
rand differently  from  what  they  wished,  they  saw  no 
chance,  on  this  occasion,  of  taking  her  with  them 
against  her  will ;  so  they  prepared  to  return.  When 
they  were  ready,  and  the  people  followed  them  out, 
Gyde  said  to  the  messengers,  ''  Now  tell  to  King 
Harald  these  my  words,  —  I  will  only  agree  to  be  his 
lawful  wife  upon  the  condition  that  he  shall  first,  for 
my  sake,  subject  to  himself  the  whole  of  Norway,  so 
that  he  may  rule  over  that  kingdom  as  freely  and 
fully  as  King  Eric  over  the  Swedish  dominions,  or 
King  Gorm  over  Denmark  ;  for  only  then,  methinks, 
can  he  be  called  the  king  of  a  people." 

Now  came  the  messengers  back  to  King  Harald,     Chapter 
bringing  him  the  words  of  the  girl,  and  saying  she  Kini^Ha. 
was  so  bold  and  foolish  that  she  well  deserved  that  ^^^^'^  vow, 
the  king  should  send  a  greater  troop  of  people  for 
her,  and  inflict  on  her  some  disgrace.  Then  answered 
the  king,  "  This  girl  has  not  spoken  or  done  so  much 
amiss  that  she  should  be  punished,  but  rather  she 
should  be  thanked  for  her  words     She  has  reminded 
me,"  said  he,  "  of  something  which  it  appears  to  me 
wonderful  I  did  not  think  of  before.   And  now,"  added 

VOL.  I.  T 


274 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 

•  V.  : 

The  battle 
in  Orkadal. 


Chapter 

VI. 
Of  King 
Harald's 
laws  for 
land  pro- 
perty. 


he,  "  I  make  the  solemn  vow,  and  take  God  to  witness, 
who  made  me*,  and  rules  over  all  thmgs,  that  never 
shall  I  clip  or  comb  my  hair  until  I  have  subdued  the 
whole  of  Norway,  with  scattf,  and  duties,  and  do- 
mains; or  if  not,  have  died  in  the  attempt."  Guttorm 
thanked  the  king  warmly  for  his  vow ;  adding,  that  it 
was  royal  work  to  fulfil  royal  words. 

After  this  the  two  relations  gather  together  a  great 
force,  and  prepare  for  an  expedition  to  the  Uplands, 
and  northwards  up  the  valley  (Gudbrandsdal),  and 
north  over  Dovrefielde  ;  and  when  the  king  came 
down  to  the  inhabited  land  he  ordered  all  the  men  to 
be  killed,  and  every  thing  wide  around  to  be  delivered 
to  the  flames.  And  when  the  people  came  to  know 
this,  they  fled  every  one  where  he  could ;  some  down 
the  country  to  Orkadal,  some  to  Gaulerdal,  some  to 
the  forests.  But  some  begged  for  peace,  and  obtained 
it,  on  condition  of  joining  the  king  and  becoming  his 
men.  He  met  no  opposition  until  he  came  to  Orkadal. 
There  a  crowd  of  people  had  assembled,  and  he  had 
his  first  battle  with  a  king  called  Gryting.  Harald 
won  the  victory,  and  King  Gryting  was  made  prisoner, 
and  most  of  his  people  killed.  He  took  service  himself 
under  the  king,  and  swore  fidelity  to  him.  There- 
after all  the  people  in  Orkadal  district  went  under 
King  Harald,  and  became  his  men. 

King  Harald  made  this  law  over  all  the  lands  he 
conquered,  that  all  the  udal  property  should  belong 
to  him;  and  that  the  bonders,  both  great  and  small, 

*  This  appears  a  Christian  interpolation ;  at  least  we  find  no  such 
vows  among  the  other  saga  heroes  of  the  Odin  religion. 

"j"  Scatt  was  a  land-tax,  paid  to  the  king  in  money,  malt,  meal,  or 
flesh-meat,  from  all  lands  ;  and  was  adjudged  by  the  Thing  to  each 
king  upon  his  accession,  and  being  proposed  and  accepted  as  king. 

In  Orkney,  where  the  land  in  general  has  been  feudalised  since 
the  annexation  in  1463  of  the  islands  to  the  Scotch  crown,  the  old 
udal  tax  of  scatt  remains  as  an  item  in  the  feu-duties  payable  to  the 
crown. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  275 

should  pay  him  land  dues  for  their  possessions.*  Over  saga  m. 
every  district  he  set  an  earl  to  judge  according  to  the 
law  of  the  land  and  to  justice,  and  also  to  collect  the 
land  dues  and  the  fines ;  and  for  this  each  earl  received 
a  third  part  of  the  dues,  and  services,  and  fines,  for 
the  support  of  his  table  and  other  expenses.  Each 
earl  had  under  him  four  or  more  hersers,  each  of 
whom  had  an  estate  of  twenty  merks  yearly  income 
bestowed  on  him  and  was  bound  to  support  twenty 
men-at-arms,  and  the  earl  sixty  men,  at  their  own 
expenses.  The  king  had  increased  the  land  dues  and 
burdens  so  much,  that  each  of  his  earls  had  greater 
power  and  income  than  the  kings  had  before  ;  and 
when  that  became  known  at  Drontheim,  many  great 
men  joined  the  king,  and  took  his  service. 

It  is  told  that  Earl  Hakon  Griotgardsson  came  to  Chapter 
King  Harald  from  Orland,  and  brought  a  great  crowd  BatTie^n 
of  men  to  his  service.  Then  King  Harald  went  into  Oauierdai. 
Gaulerdal,  and  had  a  great  battle,  in  which  he  slew 
two  kings,  and  conquered  their  dominions ;  and  these 
were  Gaulerdal  district  and  St  rind  district.  He  gave 
Earl  Hakon  Strind  district  to  rule  over  as  earl.  King 
Harald  then  proceeded  to  Stordal,  and  had  a  third 
battle,  in  which  he  gained  the  victory,  and  took  that 
district  also.  Thereupon  the  Drontheim  people  as- 
sembled, and  four  kings  met  together  with  their 
troops.  The  one  ruled  over  Yserdalf,  the  second 
over  Skogn,  the  third  over  Sparbu,  and  the  fourth 
over  Inderoen ;  and  this  latter  had  also  Eyna  district. 
These  four  kings  marched  with  their  men  against 
King  Harald,  but  he  won  the  battle;  and  some  of 
these  kings  fell,  and  some  fled.  In  all.  King  Harald 
fought  at  the  least  eight  battles,  and  slew  eight  kings, 

*  This  appears   to   have  been  an  attempt   to   introduce  the  feudal 
system. 

•f  Vaerdal,,   Skogn,  Sparbu,  Inderoen,  are  small  districts  or  parishes 
on  the  side  of  the  Drontheim  fiord. 

T    2 


276 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 
VIII. 

King  Ha- 
rald  seizes 
all  Nu- 
medal  dis- 
trict. 


in  tlie  land  of  Drontheim,  and  laid  the  whole  of  it 
under  him. 

North  in  Numedal  were  two  brothers,  kings,  —  Her- 
laug  and  Hrollaug ;  and  they  had  been  for  three  sum- 
mers raising  a  mound  or  tomb  of  stone  and  lime  and 
of  wood.  Just  as  the  work  was  finished,  the  brothers 
got  the  news  that  King  Harald  was  coming  upon 
them  mth  his  army.  Then  King  Herlaug  had  a  great 
quantity  of  meat  and  drink  brought  into  the  mound, 
and  went  into  it  himself,  with  eleven  companions, 
and  ordered  the  mound  to  be  covered  up.  King 
Hrollaug,  on  the  contrary,  went  upon  the  summit  of 
the  mound,  on  which  the  kings  were  wont  to  sit,  and 
made  a  throne  to  be  erected,  upon  which  he  seated 
himself.  Then  he  ordered  feather-beds  to  be  laid 
upon  the  bench  below,  on  which  the  earls  Avere  wont 
to  be  seated,  and  threw  himself  down  from  his  high 
seat  or  throne  into  the  earls'  seat,  giving  himself  the 
title  of  earl.  Now  Hrollaug  went  to  meet  King 
Harald,  gave  up  to  him  his  whole  kingdom,  offered 
to  enter  into  his  service,  and  told  him  his  whole  pro- 
ceeding. Then  took  King  Harald  a  sword,  fastened 
it  to  Hrollaug's  belt,  bound  a  shield  to  his  neck,  and 
made  him  thereupon  an  earl,  and  led  him  to  his  earl's 
seat ;  and  therewith  gave  him  the  district  of  Numedal, 
and  set  him  as  earl  over  it.* 


*  Before  writing  was  in  general  use,  this  symbolical  way  of  perform- 
ing all  important  legal  acts  appears  to  have  entered  into  the  jurispru- 
dence of  all  savage  nations  ;  and  according  to  Gibbon,  chap.  44.,  '^  the 
jurisprudence  of  the  first  Romans  exhibited  the  scenes  of  a  pantomime: 
the  words  were  adapted  to  the  gestures,  and  the  slightest  error  or 
neglect  in  the  forms  of  proceeding  was  sufficient  to  annul  the  substance 
of  the  fairest  claims."  This  ceremony  of  demission  from  the  seat  of  a 
king,  and  assumption  of  the  rank  and  seat  of  an  earl,  and  the  subse- 
quent investiture  of  Hrollaug  by  the  ceremony  of  binding  a  sword  and 
shield  on  him,  and  leading  him  to  the  earls'  seat,  have  probably  been 
ceremonies  adopted  from  the  feudal  countries.  Harald  Haarfager's  ob- 
ject appears  to  have  been  to  feudalise  the  dominions  he  conquered  from 
the  small  kings ;  but  the  subsequent  partition  of  the  country  among  his 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  277 

King  Harald  then  returned  to  Drontheim,  where  saga  m. 

he  dwelt  during  the  winter,  and  always  afterwards  Chapter 

called  it  his  home.     He  fixed  here  his  head  residence,  King  Ha- 

which  is  called  Lade.     This  winter  he  took  to  wife  raid's  home 

OTyo  1  'pc 

Asa,  a  daughter  of  Earl  Hakon  Griotgardsson,  who 
then  stood  in  great  favour  and  honour  with  the  king. 
In  spring  the  king  fitted  out  his  ships.  In  winter  he 
had  caused  a  great  frigate  (a  dragon)  to  be  built,  and 
had  it  fitted  out  in  the  most  splendid  way,  and  brought 
his  house-troops  and  his  berserkers  on  board.  The 
forecastle  men  were  picked  men,  for  they  had  the 
king's  banner.  From  the  stem  to  the  mid-hold  was 
called  rausn  *,  or  the  fore-defence ;  and  there  were  the 
berserkers. f  Such  men  only  were  received  into  King 
Harald's  house-troop  as  were  remarkable  for  strength, 
courage,  and  all  kinds  of  dexterity ;  and  they  alone 
got  place  in  his  ship,  for  he  had  a  good  choice  of 
house-troops  from  the  best  men  of  every  district. 
King  Harald  had  a  great  army,  many  large  ships,  and 
many  men  of  might  followed  him.  Hornklofe,  in  his 
poem  called  "  Glymdrapa,"  tells  of  this ;  and  also  that 
King  Harald  had  a  battle  with  the  people  of  Orkadal, 
at  Opdal  forest,  before  he  went  upon  this  expedition. 

''  O'er  the  broad  heath  the  bowstrings  twang, 
While  high  in  air  the  arrows  sang; 
The  iron  shower  drives  to  flight 
The  foemen  from  the  bloody  fight. 
The  warder  of  great  Odin's  shrine, 
The  fair-haired  son  of  Odin's  line, 
Raises  the  voice  which  gives  the  cheer, 
First  in  the  track  of  wolf  or  bear. 
His  master  voice  drives  them  along 
To  Hell — a  destined,  trembling  throng; 


descendants,  and  their  feuds  with  each  other,  prevented  the  permanency 
of  feudal  tenures  under  the  crown;  and  the  holdings  being  only  personal, 
not  hereditary,  were  of  less  value  than  the  udal  rights  to  land. 

*   Rausn  is  explained   by  Schoniiig  to  have   been   that   part  of  the 
vessel  where  the  rise  begins  to  form  the  bow  —  the  forecastle-deck. 

t  Berserker.      See  note.  Chapter  6.  "  Ynglinga  Saga." 

T    3 


278 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 
X. 
Battle  at 
Solskiel. 


And  Nokve's  ship,  with  glancing  sides. 
Must  fly  to  the  wild  ocean's  tides, — 
Must  fly  before  the  king  who  leads 
Norse  axe-men  on  their  ocean-steeds." 

King  Harald  moved  out  with  his  army  from  Dron- 
theim,  and  went  southwards  to  More.*  Hunthiof 
was  the  name  of  the  king  who  ruled  over  the  district 
of  More.  Solve  Klofe  was  the  name  of  his  son,  and 
both  were  great  warriors.  King  Nokve,  who  ruled 
over  Raumsdalf,  was  the  brother  of  Solvers  mother. 
Those  chiefs  gathered  a  great  force  when  they  heard 
of  King  Harald,  and  came  against  him.  They  met 
at  Solskiel  J,  and  there  was  a  great  battle,  which  was 
gained  by  King  Harald.  Hornklofe  tells  of  this 
battle :  — 

'^  Thus  did  the  hero  known  to  fame. 
The  leader  of  the  shields,  whose  name 
Strikes  every  heart  with  dire  dismay. 
Launch  forth  his  war-ships  to  the  fray. 
Two  kings  he  fought ;  but  little  strife 
Was  needed  to  cut  short  their  life. 
A  clang  of  arms  by  the  sea-shore, — 
And  the  shields'  sound  was  heard  no  more." 

The  two  kings  were  slain,  but  Solve  escaped  by 
flight ;  and  King  Harald  laid  both  districts  under  his 
power.  He  staid  here  long  in  summer  to  establish 
law  and  order  for  the  country  people,  and  set  men  to 
rule  them,  and  keep  them  faithful  to  him ;  and  in 
autumn  he  prepared  to  return  northwards  to  Dron- 
theim.  Rognvald  Earl  of  More,  a  son  of  Eystein 
Glumre,  had  the  summer  before  become  one  of  Harald's 
men ;  and  the  king  set  him  as  chief  over  these  two 


*  Maeri  appears  derived  from  the  old  northern  word  Mar,  the  sea; 
the  same  as  the  Latin  mare,  and  retained  by  us  in  moor  or  morass.  It 
is  applied  to  a  flat  bordering  on  the  sea  ;  and  possibly  our  Murrayshire 
may  have  a  common  root  with  the  two  districts  of  Norway  called  South 
and  North  More. 

■f  Raumsdalr  is  the  present  Ramsdal. 

i  Solskiel  is  an  island  in  the  parish  of  ^do,  in  North  More. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  279 

districts,  North  More  and  Raumsdal ;  strengthened  sacxa  m. 
him  both  with  men  of  might  and  bonders,  and  gave 
him  the  help  of  ships  to  defend  the  coast  against  ene- 
mies. He  was  called  Rognvald  the  Mighty,  or  the 
Wise ;  and  people  say  both  names  suited  well.  King 
Harald  came  back  to  Drontheim  about  winter. 

The  following  spring.  King  Harald  raised  a  great    Chapter 
force  in  Drontheim,  and  gave  out  that  he  would  pro-  Fail  of 
ceed  to  South  More.      Solve  Klofe  had  iDassed  the  ^^'^^'jf^ 

-,       .  .  Arnvid  and 

winter  in  his  ships  of  war,  plundering  in  North  More,  Audbiom. 
and  had  killed  many  of  King  Harald' s  men ;  pillaging 
some  places,  burning  others,  and  making  great  ra- 
vage :  but  sometimes  he  had  been,  during  the  winter, 
with  his  friend  King  Arnvid  in  South  More.  Now 
when  he  heard  that  King  Harald  was  come  with  ships 
and  a  great  army,  he  gathered  people,  and  was  strong 
in  men-at-arms  ;  for  many  thought  they  had  to  take 
vengeance  of  King  Harald.  Solve  Klofe  went  south- 
wards to  the  Fiorde,  which  King  Audbiorn  ruled  over, 
to  ask  him  to  help,  and  join  his  force  to  King  Arnvid's 
and  his  own.  "  For,"  said  he,  "it  is  now  clear  that 
we  all  have  but  one  course  to  take  ;  and  that  is  to  rise, 
all  as  one  man,  against  King  Harald,  for  we  have 
strength  enough,  and  fate  must  decide  the  victory ;  for 
as  to  the  other  condition  of  becoming  his  servants,  that 
is  no  condition  for  us,  who  are  not  less  noble  than 
Harald.  My  father  thought  it  better  to  fall  in  battle 
for  his  kingdom,  than  to  go  willingly  into  King  Ha- 
rald's  service,  or  not  to  abide  the  chance  of  weapons 
like  the  Numedal  kings."  King  Solve's  speech  was 
such  that  King  Audbiorn  promised  his  help,  and  ga- 
thered a  great  force  together,  and  went  with  it  to  King 
Arnvid,  and  they  had  a  great  army.  Now,  they  got 
news  that  King  Harald  was  come  from  the  north,  and 
they  met  within  Solskiel.*     And  it  was  the  custom  to 

*  An  island  in  the  parish  of  Edo,  in  North  More. 

T    4 


280 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


Chapter 
XII. 
King  Ve- 
mund 
burnt  to 
death. 


SAGA  III.  lash  the  ships  together,  stem  to  stem ;  so  it  was  done 
now.  King  Harald  laid  his  ship  against  King  Arn- 
vid's,  and  there  was  the  sharpest  fight,  and  many 
men  fell  on  both  sides.  At  last  King  Harald  was 
raging  with  anger,  and  went  forward  to  the  fore- deck, 
and  slew  so  dreadfully  that  all  the  forecastle  men  of 
Arnvid's  ship  were  driven  aft  of  the  mast,  and  some 
fell.  Thereupon  Harald  boarded  the  ship,  and  King 
Arnvid's  men  tried  to  save  themselves  by  flight,  and 
he  himself  was  slain  in  his  ship.  King  Audbiorn  also 
fell ;  but  Solve  fled.     So  says  Hornklofe :  — 

"  Against  the  hero's  shield  in  vain 
The  arrow-storm  fierce  pours  its  rain. 
The  king  stands  on  the  blood-stained  deck, 
Trampling  on  many  a  stout  foe's  neck  j 
And  high  above  the  dinning  stound 
Of  helm  and  axe^  and  ringing  sound 
Of  blade  and  shield,  and  raven's  cry_, 
Is  heard  his  shout  of  '^  Victory  ! '  " 

Of  King  Harald's  men,  fell  his  earls  Asgaut  and 
Asbiorn,  together  with  his  brothers-in-law  Griotgard 
and  Hrollaug,  the  sons  of  Earl  Hakon  of  Lade.  Solve 
became  afterwards  a  great  sea-king,  and  often  did 
great  damage  in  King  Harald's  dominions. 

After  this  battle  King  Harald  subdued  South  More  ; 
but  Vemund,  King  Audbiorn' s  brother,  still  had  the 
Fiorde  district.  It  was  now  late  in  harvest,  and  King 
Harald's  men  gave  him  the  counsel  not  to  proceed 
southwards  round  Stad.f  Then  King  Harald  set  Earl 
Rognvald  over  South  and  North  More  and  also  Raums- 
dal,  and  he  had  many  people  about  him.  King  Harald 
returned  to  Drontheim.  The  same  winter  Rognvald 
went  over  the  inner  neck  of  land,  and  southwards  to  the 
Fiorde  district.  There  he  heard  news  of  King  Vemund, 
and  came  by  night  to  a  place  called  Notsdal,  where  King 

*  Stad  is  often  mentioned  in  the  sagas,  being  the  most  westerly  part 
of  the  mainland  of  Norway;  and  vessels  coasting  along  from  the  north 
or  south  had  to  steer  a'new  course  along  the  coast  after  passing  Stad, 
It  is  now  called  Stadland. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  281 

Vemund  was  living  in  guest-quarters.  Earl  Rognvald  saga  m. 
surrounded  the  house  in  which  they  were  quartered, 
and  burnt  the  king  in  it,  together  with  ninety 
men.  Then  came  Berdlukaare  to  Earl  Eognvald  with 
a  completely  armed  long-ship,  and  they  both  returned 
to  More.  The  earl  took  all  the  ships  Vemund  had, 
and  all  the  goods  he  could  get  hold  of.  Berdlukaare 
proceeded  north  to  Drontheim  to  King  Harald,  and 
became  his  man ;  and  a  dreadful  berserk  he  was. 

The  following  spring  King  Harald  went  southwards    Chapter 
with  his  fleet  along  the  coast,  and  subdued  the  district  De^/Jof 
of  the  Fiorde.     Then  he  sailed  eastward  alono;  the  Eari  Ha- 
land  until  he  came  to  Viken  ;  but  he  left  Earl  Hakon  of  Eari 
Griotgardsson  behind,   and  set  him  over  the  Fiorde  siJlajf^^ 
district.      Earl  Hakon  sent  word  to  Earl  Atle  the 
Small  that  he  should  leave  Sogne  district,  and  be  earl 
over  Gaular  district,  as  he  had  been  before,  alleging 
that  King  Harald  had  given  Sogne  district  to  him. 
Earl  Atle  sent  word  back  that  he  would  keep  both 
Sogne  district  and  Gaular  district,  until  he  met  King 
Harald.     The  two  earls  quarrelled  about  this  so  long, 
that  both  gathered  troops.     They  met  at  Fialar,  in 
Stavanger  fiord,  and  had  a  great  battle,  in  which  Earl 
Hakon  fell,  and  Earl  Atle  got  a  mortal  wound,  and  his 
men  carried  him  to  the  island  of  Atle*,  where  he  died. 
So  says  Ey vind  Skaldaspiller :  — 

^'  He  who  stood  a  rooted  oak^ 

Unshaken  by  the  swordsman's  stroke. 
Amidst  the  whiz  of  arrows  slain. 
Has  fallen  upon  Fialar's  plain. 
There,  by  the  ocean's  rocky  shore, 
The  waves  are  stained  with  the  red  gore 
Of  stout  Earl  Hakon  Griotgard's  son, 
And  of  brave  warriors  many  a  one." 


*  Atla  isle  in  Fialar,  now  included  in  Sondfiord,  has  probably  got 
its  name  from  Atle.  Three  standing  stones  at  Velnaes  church,  supposed 
to  have  been  erected  to  his  memory,  still  remain. 


282 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 

Chapter 
XIV. 

Of  King 
Harakl 
and  the 
Swedish 
King  Eric. 


Chapter 
XV. 
King  Ha- 
rakl at  a 


King  Harald  came  with  his  fleet  eastward  to  Viken, 
and  landed  at  Tunsberg,  which  was  then  a  trading 
town.  He  had  then  been  four  years  in  Drontheim, 
and  in  all  that  time  had  not  been  in  Yiken.  Here  he 
heard  the  news  that  Eric  Eymundson,  king  of  Sweden, 
had  laid  under  him  Yermeland,  and  was  taking  scatt 
or  land-tax  from  all  the  forest  settlers  ;  and  also  that 
he  called  the  whole  country  north  to  Swinesund,  and 
west  along  the  sea,  Westgothland ;  and  which  altogether 
he  reckoned  to  his  kingdom,  and  took  land-tax  from 
it.  Over  this  country  he  had  set  an  earl,  by  name 
Hrane  Gotska,  who  had  the  earldom  between  Swine- 
sund  and  the  Gotha  river,  and  was  a  mighty  earl. 
And  it  was  told  to  King  Harald  that  the  Swedish 
king  said  he  would  not  rest  until  he  had  as  great  a 
kingdom  in  Yiken  as  Sigurd  King,  or  his  son  Ragnar 
Lodbrok,  had  possessed ;  and  that  was  Raumarige  and 
Westfold,  all  the  way  to  the  isle  Grenmar,  and  also 
Yingulmark,  and  all  that  lay  south  of  it.  In  these 
districts  many  chiefs,  and  many  other  people,  had 
given  obedience  to  the  Swedish  king.  King  Harald 
was  very  angry  at  this,  and  summoned  the  bonders  to 
a  Thing  at  Folden,  where  he  laid  an  accusation*  against 
them  for  treason  towards  him.  Some  bonders  defended 
themselves  from  the  accusation,  some  paid  fines,  some 
were  punished.  He  went  thus  through  the  whole  dis- 
trict during  the  summer,  and  in  harvest  he  did  the 
same  in  Raumarige,  and  laid  the  two  districts  under 
his  power.  Towards  mnter  he  heard  that  Eric  king 
of  Sweden  was,  with  his  court,  going  about  in  Yerme- 
land  in  guest-quarters. 

King  Harald  takes  his  way  across  the  Eida  forest 
eastward,  and  comes  out  in  Yermeland,  where  he  also 
orders  feasts  to  be  prepared  for  himself.     There  was 

*  A  reference  to  a  Thing,  and  an  accusation  before  it,  appears  to 
have  been  a  necessary  mode  of  proceeding,  even  to  authorise  the  king  to 
punish  for  treason  the  udal  landholders. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  283 

li  man,  by  name  Aake,  who  was  the  greatest  of  the  sagajh. 
bonders  of  Vermeland,  very  rich,  and  at  that  time  feast  of  the 
very  aged.  He  sent  men  to  King  Harald,  and  invited  ATke"lnd 
him  to  a  feast,  and  the  king  promised  to  come  on  the  the  murder 
day  appointed.  Aake  invited  also  King  Eric  to  a 
feast,  and  appointed  the  same  day.  Aake  had  a  great 
feasting  hall,  but  it  was  old ;  and  he  made  a  new  hall, 
not  less  than  the  old  one,  and  had  it  ornamented  in 
the  most  splendid  way.  The  new  hall  he  had  hung 
with  new  hangings,  but  the  old  had  only  its  old  orna- 
ments. Now  when  the  kings  came  to  the  feast.  King 
Eric  Tvith  his  court  was  taken  into  the  old  hall ;  but 
Harald  with  his  followers  into  the  new.  The  same 
difference  was  in  all  the  table  furniture,  and  King 
Eric  and  his  men  had  the  old-fashioned  vessels  and 
horns,  but  all  gilded  and  splendid ;  while  King  Harald 
and  his  men  had  entirely  new  vessels  and  horns 
adorned  with  gold,  all  with  carved  figures,  and  shining 
like  glass :  and  both  companies  had  the  best  of  liquor. 
Aake  the  bonder  had  formerly  been  King  Halfdan  the 
Black's  man.  Now  when  dayUght  came,  and  the  feast 
was  quite  ended,  and  the  kings  made  themselves  ready 
for  their  journey,  and  the  horses  were  saddled,  came 
Aake  before  King  Harald,  leading  in  his  hand  his  son 
Ubbe,  a  boy  of  twelve  years  of  age,  and  said,  ""  If  the 
goodwill  I  have  shown  to  thee,  sire,  in  my  feast,  be 
worth  thy  friendship,  show  it  hereafter  to  my  son.  I 
give  him  to  thee  now  for  thy  service.'^  The  king 
thanked  him  with  many  agreeable  words  for  his 
friendly  entertainment,  and  promised  him  his  full 
friendship  in  return.  Then  Aake  brought  out  great 
presents,  which  he  gave  to  the  king,  and  they  gave 
each  other  thereafter  the  parting  kiss.  Aake  went 
next  to  the  Swedish  king,  who  was  dressed  and  ready 
for  the  road,  but  not  in  the  best  humour.  Aake  gave 
to  him  also  good  and  valuable  gifts ;  but  the  king  an- 
swered only  with  few  words,  and  mounted  his  horse. 


284 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 
XVI. 
King 
Harald's 
journey  to 
Tunsberg. 


Aake  followed  the  king  on  the  road,  and  talked  with 
him.  The  road  led  through  a  wood  which  was  near 
to  the  house ;  and  when  Aake  came  to  the  wood,  the 
king  said  to  him,  "  How  was  it  that  thou  madest  such 
a  difference  between  me  and  King  Harald  as  to  give 
him  the  best  of  every  thing,  although  thou  knowest 
thou  art  ray  man  ?  "  "I  think,"  answered  Aake,  "  that 
there  failed  in  it  nothing,  king,  either  to  you  or  to 
your  attendants,  in  friendly  entertainment  at  this  feast. 
But  that  all  the  utensils  for  your  drinking  were  old, 
was  because  you  are  now  old ;  but  King  Harald  is  in 
the  bloom  of  youth,  and  therefore  I  gave  him  the 
new  things.  And  as  to  my  being  thy  man,  thou  art 
just  as  much  my  man."  On  this  the  king  out  mth 
his  sword,  and  gave  Aake  his  death- wound.  King 
Harald  was  ready  now  also  to  mount  his  horse,  and 
desired  that  Aake  should  be  called.  The  people  went 
to  seek  him ;  and  some  ran  up  the  road  that  King  Eric 
had  taken,  and  found  Aake  there  dead.  They  came 
back,  and  told  the  news  to  King  Harald,  and  he  bids 
his  men  to  be  up,  and  avenge  Aake  the  bonder.  And 
away  rode  he  and  his  men  the  way  King  Eric  had 
taken,  until  they  came  in  sight  of  each  other.  Each 
for  himself  rode  as  hard  as  he  could,  until  Eric  came 
into  the  wood  which  divides  Gotland  and  Yermeland. 
There  King  Harald  wheels  about,  and  returns  to 
Yermeland,  and  lays  the  country  under  him,  and  kills 
Kinsf  Eric's  men  wheresoever  he  can  find  them.  In 
winter  King  Harald  returned  to  Eaumarige,  and  dwelt 
there  a  while. 

King  Harald  went  out  in  winter  to  his  ships  at 
Tunsberg,  rigged  them,  and  sailed  away  eastivard  over 
the  Fiord,  and  subjected  all  Yingulmark  to  his  domi- 
nion. All  winter  he  was  out  with  his  ships,  and 
marauded  in  Ranrige  * ;  so  says  Thorbiorn  Hornklofe : — 

*  Ranrige  was  the  present  Bahuus  province^  between  the  Gotha  and 
Glommen  river-mouths. 


KINGS   OF    NORWAY.  285 

"  The  Norseman's  king  is  on  the  sea,  saga  hi. 

Tho'  bitter  wintry  cold  it  be,  — 
On  the  wild  waves  his  Yule  keeps  he. 
When  our  brisk  king  can  get  his  way. 
He'll  no  more  by  the  fireside  stay 
Than  the  young  sun :   he  makes  us  play 
The  game  of  the  bright  sun-god*  Freyr. 
But  the  soft  Swede  loves  well  the  fire, 
The  well-stufFed  couch,  the  downy  glove. 
And  from  the  hearth-seat  will  not  move." 

The  Gotlanders  gathered  people  together  all  over 
the  country. 

In  spring,  when  the  ice  was  breaking  up,   they    Chapter 
drove   stakes  into  the  Gotha  river  to  hinder  King  The  battle 
Harald  with  his  ships  from  coming  to  the  land.     But  ^"  Gotland. 
King  Harald  laid  his  ships  alongside  the  stakes,  and 
plundered  the  country,  and  burnt  all  around ;  so  says 
Hornklofe :  — 

"  The  king,  who  finds  a  dainty  feast 
For  battle-bird  and  prowling  beast. 
Has  won  in  war  the  southern  land 
That  lies  along  the  ocean's  strand. 
The  leader  of  the  helmets,  he 
Who  leads  his  ships  o'er  the  dark  sea, 
Harald,  whose  high-rigged  masts  appear 
Like  antlered  fronts  of  the  wild  deer. 
Has  laid  his  ships  close  alongside 
Of  the  foe's  piles  with  daring  pride." 

Afterwards  the  Gotlanders  came  down  to  the 
strand  with  a  great  army,  and  gave  battle  to  King 
Harald,  and  great  was  the  fall  of  men.  But  it  was 
King  Harald  who  gained  the  day.  Thus  says  Horn- 
klofe :  — 

'^  Whistles  the  battle-axe  in  its  swing. 
O'er  head  the  whizzing  javelins  sing. 
Helmet  and  shield  and  hauberk  ring  ; 
The  air-song  of  the  lance  is  loud. 
The  arrows  pipe  in  darkening  cloud ; 


*  In  northern  mythology  Freyr,  the  god  of  the  sun,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  born  at  the  winter  solstice  ;  and  the  return  of  the  lengthen- 
ing day  was  celebrated  by  a  feast  called  Yule,  which  coinciding  with 
Christmas,  was  transferred  to  the  Christian  festival. 


286 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III.  Through  helm  and  mail  the  foemen  feel 

The  blue  edge  of  our  king's  good  steel. 

Who  can  withstand  our  gallant  king  ? 
The  Gotland  men  their  flight  must  wing." 

Chapter  Kiiig  Harald  WGiit  far  and  wide  througli  Gotland, 
Hrane  the  and  many  were  the  battles  he  fought  there,  and  in 
d^atlr."^^^^^  general  he  was  victorious.  In  one  of  these  battles 
fell  Hrane  the  Gotlander;  and  then  the  king  took  his 
whole  land  north  of  the  river  and  west  of  the  Yen- 
ner,  and  also  Yermeland.  And  after  he  turned  back 
therefrom,  he  set  Guttorm  as  chief  to  defend  the 
country,  and  left  a  great  force  with  him.  King 
Harald  himself  went  first  to  the  Uplands,  where  he 
remained  a  while,  and  then  proceeded  northwards 
over  the  Dovrefielde  to  Drontheim,  where  he  dwelt 
for  a  long  time.  Harald  began  to  have  children. 
By  Asa  he  had  four  sons.  The  eldest  was  Guttorm. 
Halfdan  the  Black  and  Halfdan  the  White  were  twins. 
Sigfrode  was  the  fourth.  They  were  all  brought  up 
in  Drontheim  with  all  honour. 

News  came  in  from  the  south  land  that  the  people 
of  Hordaland  and  Rogaland,  Agder  and  Thelemark, 
were  gatherings  and  bringing  together  ships  and  wea- 
pons, and  a  great  body  of  men.  The  leaders  of  this 
were  Eric  king  of  Hordaland ;  Sulke  king  of  Roga- 
land,  and  his  brother  Earl  Sote ;  Kiotve  the  Rich, 
king  of  Agder,  and  his  son  Thor  Haldang ;  and  from 
Thelemark  two  brothers,  Roald  Ryg  and  Hadd  the 
Hard.  Now  when  Harald  got  certain  news  of  this, 
he  assembled  his  forces,  set  his  ships  on  the  water, 
made  himself  ready  with  his  men,  and  set  out  south- 
wards along  the  coast,  gathering  many  people  from 
every  district.  King  Eric  heard  of  this  when  he  came 
south  of  Stad ;  and  having  assembled  all  the  men  he 
could  expect,  he  proceeded  southwards  to  meet  the 
force  which  he  knew  was  coming  to  his  help  from  the 
east.     The  Avhole  met  together  north  of  Jeddern,  and 


Chapter 
XIX. 

Battle  in 

Hafurs- 

tiord. 


KINGS   OF   NOKWAY.  287 

went  into  Hafursfiord,  where  King  Harald  was  wait-  sagajh. 
ing  with  his  forces.  A  great  battle  began,  which  was 
both  hard  and  long ;  but  at  last  King  Harald  gained 
the  day.  There  King  Eric  fell,  and  King  Sulke,  with 
his  brother  Earl  Sote.  Thor  Haklang,  who  was  a 
great  berserk,  had  laid  his  ship  against  King  Harald's, 
and  there  was  above  all  measure  a  desperate  attack, 
until  Thor  Haklang  fell,  and  his  whole  ship  was 
cleared  of  men.  Then  King  Kiotve  fled  to  a  little 
isle  outside,  on  which  there  a  was  a  good  place  of 
strength.  Thereafter  all  his  men  fled,  some  to  their 
ships,  some  up  to  the  land ;  and  the  latter  ran  south- 
wards over  the  country  of  Jeddern.  So  says  Horn- 
klofe,  viz. :  — 

"  Has  the  news  reached  you  ?  — have  you  heard 
Of  the  great  fight  at  Hafurdsfiord,,  * 
Between  our  noble  king  brave  Harald 
And  King  Kiotve  rich  in  gold  ? 
The  foemen  came  from  out  the  East^ 
Keen  for  the  fray  as  for  a  feast. 
A  gallant  sight  it  was  to  see 
Their  fleet  sweep  o'er  the  dark-blue  sea; 
Each  war-ship,  with  its  threatening  throat 
Of  dragon  fierce  or  ravenous  brute  "j*  * 

Grim  gaping  from  the  prow;   its  wales 
Glittering  with  burnished  shields :|:,  like  scales; 
Its  crew  of  udal  men  of  war, 
VThose  snow-white  targets  shone  from  far; 
And  many  a  mailed  spearman  stout 
From  the  West  countries  round  about, 
English  and  Scotch,  a  foreign  host. 
And  swordsmen  from  the  far  French  coast.  § 
And  as  the  foemen 's  ships  drew  near. 
The  dreadful  din  you  well  might  hear  ; 


*  Hafrsfiordr,  now  Hafsfiord,  north  of  Jederen  district. 

"j"  The  war-ships  were  called  dragons,  from  being  decorated  with  the 
head  of  a  dragon,  serpent,  or  other  wild  animal ;  and  the  word  "draco" 
was  adopted  in  the  Latin  of  the  middle  ages  to  denote  a  ship  of  war 
of  the  larger  class.      The  snekke  was  the  cutter  or  smaller  war-ship. 

1   The  shields  were  hung  over  the  side  rails  of  the  ships. 

§  It  is  curious  to  find  that  English,  Scotch,  and  French  men-at- 
arms,  from  the  West  countries,  were  in  Kiotve's  army. 


288 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapper 
XX. 

King  Ha- 
rald  the 
supreme 
sovereign 
in  Norway. 
Of  the  set- 
tlement of 
distant 
lands. 


Savage  berserkers  roaring  mad, 

And  champions  fierce  in  wolf-skins  clad,* 

Howling  like  wolves;  and  clanking  jar 

Of  many  a  mail-clad  man  of  war. 

Thus  the  foe  came;  but  our  brave  king 

Taught  them  to  fly  as  fast  again. 

For  when  he  saw  their  force  come  o'er. 

He  launched  his  war-ships  from  the  shore; 

On  the  deep  sea  he  launched  his  fleet, 

And  boldly  rowed  the  foe  to  meet. 

Fierce  was  the  shock,  and  loud  the  clang 

Of  shields,  until  the  fierce  Haklang, 

The  foeman's  famous  berserk,  fell. 

Then  from  our  men  burst  forth  the  yell 

Of  victory;  and  the  King  of  Gold 

Could  not  withstand  our  Harald  bold. 

But  fled  before  his  flaky  locks 

For  shelter  to  the  island  rocks. 

All  in  the  bottom  of  the  ships 

The  wounded  lay,  in  ghastly  heaps ; 

Backs  up  and  faces  down  they  lay. 

Under  the  row-seats  stowed  away; 

And  many  a  warrior's  shield,  I  ween. 

Might  on  the  warrior's  back  be  seen. 

To  shield  him  as  he  fled  amain 

From  the  fierce  stone-storm's  pelting  rain. 

The  mountain-folk,  as  I've  heard  say. 

Ne'er  stopped  as  they  ran  from  the  fray. 

Till  they  had  crossed  the  Jeddern  sea. 

And  reached  their  homes  —  so  keen  each  soul 

To  drown  his  fright  in  the  mead  bowl." 

After  tills  battle  King  Harald  met  no  opposition  in 
Norway,  for  all  his  opponents  and  greatest  enemies 
were  cut  off.  But  some,  and  tliey  were  a  great  mul- 
titude, fled  out  of  the  country,  and  thereby  great  dis- 
tricts were  peopled.  Jemteland  and  Helsingland  were 
peopled  then,  although  some  Norwegians  had  already 
set  up  their  habitation  there.  In  the  discontent  that 
King  Harald  seized  on  the  lands  of  Norway  f,  the 
out-countries  of  Iceland  and  the  Faroe  Isles  were  dis- 
covered  and   peopled.     The   Northmen   had   also  a 


*  The  wolf-skin  pelts  were  nearly  as  good  as  armour  against  the 
sword. 

f  This  taking  the  land  appears  to  have  been  an  attempt  to  introduce 
the  feudal  tenures  and  services. 


KINGS   OF   NOKWAY.  289 

great  resort  to  Shetland,  and  many  men  left  Norway,  saga  m. 
flying  the  country  on  account  of  King  Harald,  and 
went  on  viking  cruises  into  the  West  sea.  In  winter 
they  were  in  the  Orkney  Islands  and  Hebrides ;  but 
marauded  in  summer  in  Norway,  and  did  great  da- 
mage. Many,  however,  were  the  mighty  men  who 
took  service  under  King  Harald,  and  became  his  men, 
and  dwelt  in  the  land  with  him. 

When  King  Harald  had  now  become  sole  king  over 
all  Norway,  he  remembered  what  that  proud  girl  had 
said  to  him ;  so  he  sent  men  to  her,  and  had  her 
brought  to  him,  and  took  her  to  his  bed.  And  these 
were  their  children :  Alaf —  she  was  the  eldest ;  then 
was  their  son  Hrsereck;  then  Sigtryg,  Frode,  and 
Thorgils.  King  Harald  had  many  wives*  and  many 
children.  Among  them  he  had  one  wife,  who  was 
called  Ragnhild  the  Mighty,  a  daughter  of  King  Eric, 
from  Jutland ;  and  by  her  he  had  a  son,  Eric  Bloody- 
axe.  He  was  also  married  to  Swanhilde,  a  daughter 
of  Earl  Eystein ;  and  their  sons  were  Olaf  Geirsta- 
daalf,  Biorn,and  Ragnar  Ry skill.  Lastly,  King  Harald 
married  Ashilda,  a  daughter  of  King  Dagsson,  up  in 
Ringerige ;  and  their  children  were  Dag,  Ring,  Gudrod, 
Skiria,  and  Ingigerd.  It  is  told  that  King  Harald 
put  away  nine  wives  when  he  married  Ragnhild  the 
Mighty.     So  says  Hornklofe :  — 

"  Harald,  of  noblest  race  the  head, 
A  Danish  v/ife  took  to  his  bed ; 


*  Polygamy  —  possibly  brought  with  them  from  their  original  seats  in 
Asia  —  appears  to  have  been  a  privilege  of  the  royal  race,  among  the 
Northmen,  down  to  the  13th  century.  The  kings  had  concubines  as 
well  as  a  plurality  of  wives ;  and  the  children  appear  to  have  been 
equally  udal-born  to  the  kingdom,  whether  born  in  marriage  or  not.  It 
does  not  appear  from  the  sagas  what  forms  or  ceremonies  constituted  a 
marriage  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  A  marriage  feast  or 
wedding  is  mentioned,  and  one  of  the  wives  appears  to  have  been  the 
drottning  or  queen ;  but  we  are  not  told  of  any  religious  ceremony 
besides  the  feast. 

VOL.  I.  U 


^90 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IIL 


Chapter 
XXI. 

Of  King 
Harald's 
children 
and  mar- 
riages. 


Chapter 
XXII. 
King  Ha- 
rald's voy- 
age to  the 
west. 


And  out  of  doors  nine  wives  he  thrust^,  — 
The  mothers  of  the  princes  first, 
Who  in  Holmryger  hold  command. 
And  those  who  rule  in  Horder  land. 
And  then  he  packed  from  out  the  place 
The  children  born  of  Holge's  race." 

King  Harald's  children  were  all  fostered  and  brought 
up  by  their  relations  on  the  mother's  side.  Guttorm 
the  Duke  had  poured  water  over  King  Harald's  eldest 
son*,  and  had  given  him  his  own  name.  He  set  the 
child  upon  his  kneef,  and  was  his  foster-father,  and 
took  him  with  himself  eastward  to  Yiken,  and  there 
he  was  brought  up  in  the  house  of  Guttorm.  Guttorm 
ruled  the  whole  land  in  Yiken,  and  the  Uplands,  when 
King  Harald  was  absent. 

King  Harald  heard  that  the  vikings,  who  were  in 
the  West  sea  in  winter,  plundered  far  and  wide  in 
the  middle  part  of  Norway ;  and  therefore  every  sum- 
mer he  made  an  expedition  to  search  the  isles  and 
out-skerries  J  On  the  coast.  Wheresoever  the  vikings 
heard  of  him  they  all  took  to  flight,  and  most  of 
them  out  into  the  open  ocean.  At  last  the  king  grew 
weary  of  this  work,  and  therefore  one  summer  he 
sailed  with  his  fleet  right  out  into  the  West  sea.  First 
he  came  to  Shetland,  and  he  slew  all  the  vikings  who 
could  not  save  themselves  by  flight.  Then  King 
Harald  sailed  southwards,  to  the  Orkney  Islands,  and 
cleared  them  all  of  vikings.     Thereafter  he  proceeded 

*  This  pouring  water  over  a  child,  and  giving  it  a  name_,  could 
scarcely  have  been  an  original  coincidence  between  the  Odin  worship 
and  Christianity.  In  Odinism  it  betokens  nothing,  and  if  really  used 
has  probably  been  borrowed  from  the  Christian  ceremony  ;  or  more 
probably,  in  the  age  when  Christianity  was  considered  to  consist  alto- 
gether in  the  ceremony  of  baptism,  the  scalds  have  thought  it  decorous 
to  represent  the  ancestors  to  whom  great  families  traced  themselves  as 
baptized  Christians,  not  unbaptized  heathens.  It  is  only  of  such  per- 
sonages that  we  hear  of  this  Odin-baptism,  and  not  of  the  other  sons 
who  had  no  royal  descendants. 

"]•  Tliis  appears  to  have  been  a  generally  used  symbol  of  adoption  of 
a  child. 

:{:  Skerries  are  the  uninhabited  dry  or  half-tide  rocks  of  a  coast. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  291 

to  the  Hebrides,  plundered  there,  and  slew  many  vi-  saga  m. 
kings  who  formerly  had  had  men-at-arms  under  them. 
Many  a  battle  was  fought,  and  King  Harald  was  al- 
ways victorious.  He  then  plundered  far  and  wide  in 
Scotland  itself,  and  had  a  battle  there.  When  he  was 
come  westward  as  far  as  the  Isle  of  Man,  the  report 
of  his  exploits  on  the  land  had  gone  before  him  ;  for 
all  the  inhabitants  had  fled  over  to  Scotland,  and  the 
island  was  left  entirely  bare  both  of  people  and 
goods,  so  that  King  Harald  and  his  men  made  no 
booty  when  they  landed.     So  says  Hornklofe :  — 

'^  The  wise,  the  noble  king,  great  Harald, 
Whose  band  so  freely  scatters  gold. 
Led  many  a  northern  shield  to  war 
Against  the  town  upon  the  shore. 
The  wolves  soon  gathered  on  the  sand 
Of  that  sea-shore  ;  for  Harald's  hand 
The  Scottish  army  drove  away. 
And  on  the  coast  left  wolves  a  prey." 

In  this  war  fell  Ivar,  a  son  of  Rognvald,  Earl  of 
More ;  and  King  Harald  gave  Rognvald,  as  a  compen- 
sation for  the  loss,  the  Orkney  and  Shetland  isles, 
when  he  sailed  from  the  West ;  but  Rognvald  immedi- 
ately gave  both  these  countries  to  his  brother  Sigurd, 
who  remained  behind  them  ;  and  King  Harald,  before 
sailing  eastward,  gave  Sigurd  the  earldom  of  them. 
Thorstein  the  Red,  a  son  of  Olaf  the  White,  and 
Aude  the  Wealthy,  entered  into  partnership  with 
him ;  and  after  plundering  in  Scotland,  they  subdued 
Caithness  and  Sutherland,  as  far  as  Ekjalsbakki.* 
Earl  Sigurd  killed  Melbrigda-Tonn,  a  Scotch  earl, 
and  hung  his  head  to  his  stirrup-leather;  but  the  calf 
of  his  leg  was  scratched  by  the  teeth,  which  were 
sticking  out  from  the  head,   and  the  wound  caused 

*  Ekkjalsbakki,  the  Ekkial,  is  now  the  Oickel,  a  river  falling  into 
the  Frith  of  Dornoch  ;  and  the  banks  or  braes  on  its  borders  are  the 
Ekkjalsbakki  of  the  saga — not  the  Ochil  hills,  as  some  have  imagined; 
and  the  burial  mound  may  be  still  remaining  possibly. 

u  2 


292 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter 
XXIII. 
King  Ha- 
rald  has 
his  hair 
clipped. 


Chapter 
XXIV. 

Rolf 

Ganger  is 
driven  into 
banish- 
ment. 


inflammation  in  his  leg,  of  which  the  earl  died,  and 
he  was  laid  in  a  mound  at  Ekjalsbakki.  His  son 
Guttorm  ruled  over  these  countries  for  about  a  year 
thereafter,  and  died  without  children.  Many  vikings, 
both  Danes  and  Northmen,  set  themselves  down  then 
in  those  countries. 

After  King  Harald  had  subdued  the  whole  land,  he 
was  one  day  at  a  feast  in  More,  given  by  Earl  Rogn- 
vald.  Then  King  Harald  went  into  a  bath,  and  had 
his  hair  dressed.  Earl  Eognvald  now  cut  his  hair, 
which  had  been  uncut  and  uncombed  for  ten  years  ; 
and  therefore  the  king  had  been  called  Ugly  Head, 
But  then  Earl  Rognvald  gave  him  the  distinguishing 
name  —  Harald  Haarfager ;  and  all  who  saw  him 
agreed  that  there  was  the  greatest  truth  in  that  sur- 
name, for  he  had  the  most  beautiful  and  abundant 
head  of  hair. 

Earl  Rognvald  was  King  Harald' s  dearest  friend, 
and  the  king  had  the  greatest  regard  for  him.  He 
was  married  to  Hilda,  a  daughter  of  Rolf  Naefia,  and 
their  sons  were  Rolf  and  Thorer.  Earl  Rognvald  had 
also  three  sons  by  concubines, — the  one  called  Hallad, 
the  second  Einar,  the  third  Hrollaug ;  and  all  three 
were  o:rown  men  when  their  brothers  born  in  marria£e 
were  still  children.  Rolf  became  a  great  viking,  and 
was  of  so  stout  a  growth  that  no  horse  could  carry 
him,  and  wheresoever  he  went  he  must  go  on  foot ; 
and  therefore  he  was  called  Gange-Rolf.*  He  plun- 
dered much  in  the  East  sea.f  One  summer,  as  he 
was  coming  from  the  eastward  on  a  viking's  expedi- 
tion to  the  coast  of  Yiken,  he  landed  there  and  made 


*  Gange-Rolf,  Rolf  Ganger,  Rolf  the  Walker^  was  the  conqueror  of 
Normandy.  He  appears  to  have  had  among  his  ancestors  a  Rolf 
Ganger;  so  that  the  popular  story  of  his  great  obesity,  which  seems 
scarcely  consistent  with  his  great  military  activity,  may  not  be  literally 
true. 

•j"  Austrvigr,  the  lands  on  the  south  side  of  the  Baltic. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  293 


a  cattle  foray.*  As  King  Harald  happened,  just  at 
that  time,  to  be  in  Yiken,  he  heard  of  it,  and  was  in  a 
great  rage;  for  he  had  forbid,  by  the  greatest  punish- 
ment, the  plundering  within  the  bounds  of  the 
country.  The  king  assembled  a  Thing,  and  had  Rolf 
declared  an  outlaw  over  all  Norway.  When  Rolf's 
mother,  Hilda,  heard  of  it  she  hastened  to  the  king, 
and  entreated  peace  for  Rolf;  but  the  king  was  so 
enraged  that  her  entreaty  was  of  no  avail.  Then 
Hilda  spake  these  lines :  — 

^'  Think'st  thou,  King  Harald^,  in  thy  anger, 
To  drive  away  my  brave  Rolf  Ganger, 
Like  a  mad  w^olf,  from  out  the  land  ? 
Why,  Harald,  raise  thy  mighty  hand? 
Why  banish  Naefia's  gallant  name-son. 
The  brother  of  brave  udal-men  ? 
Why  is  thy  cruelty  so  fell? 
Bethink  thee,  monarch,  it  is  ill 
With  such  a  wolf  at  wolf  to  play, 
Who,  driven  to  the  wild  woods  away. 
May  make  the  king's  best  deer  his  prey." 

Gauge- Rolf  went  afterwards  over  sea  to  the  West  to 
the  Hebudes,  or  Sydreyarf;  and  at  last  farther  west 
to  Yalland  J,  where  he  plundered  and  subdued  for 
himself  a  great  earldom,  which  he  peopled  with 
Northmen,  from  which  that  land  is  called  Normandy. 
Gange-Rolf 's  son  was  William,  father  to  Richard,  and 
grandfather  to  another  Richard,  who  was  the  father 
of  Richard  Longspear,  and  grandfather  of  WiUiam 
the  Bastard,  from  whom  all  the  following  English 
kings    are    descended.     From    Gange-Rolf  also    are 

*  A  strandhogg,  or  foray  for  cattle  to  be  slaughtered  on  the  strand, 
for  his  ships. 

I  Sydreyar,  —  of  which  we  still  retain  the  name  Sodor,  applied  to  the 
bishopric  of  Sodor  and  Man,  —  was  the  southern  division  of  the  Hebrides, 
or  Hebudes. 

\  Valland  was  the  name  applied  to  all  the  west  coast  of  France,  but 
more  particularly  to  Bretagne,  as  being  inhabited  by  the  Valer  or  inha- 
bitants of  Wales  and  Cornwales  (Cornwall),  expelled  by  the  Saxons 
from  Great  Britain  in  the  last  half  of  the  5th  century.  The  adjective 
Valskr  (Welsh)  was  used  to  denote  what  belonged  to  this  Valland. 

u  3 


SAGA  HI. 


294 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


Chapter 
XXV. 

Of  the 
Laplander 
Swase  and 
King  Ha- 
rald. 


SAGA  III.  descended  the  earls  in  Normandy.  Queen  Ragnhild 
the  Mighty  hved  three  years  after  she  came  to  Nor- 
way ;  and,  after  her  death,  her  son  and  King  Harald's 
was  taken  to  Thorer  Hroaldson,  and  Eric  was  fostered 
by  him. 

King  Harald,  one  winter,  went  about  in  guest-quar- 
ters in  Upland,  and  had  ordered  a  Christmas  feast  to 
be  prepared  for  him  at  the  farm  Thopte.*  On  Christ- 
mas eve  came  Swase  to  the  door,  just  as  the  king  went 
to  table,  and  sent  a  message  to  the  king  to  ask  if  he 
would  go  out  with  him.  The  king  was  angry  at  such 
a  message,  and  the  man  who  had  brought  it  in  took 
out  with  him  a  reply  of  the  king's  displeasure.  But 
Swase,  notwithstanding,  desired  that  his  message 
should  be  delivered  a  second  time ;  adding  to  it,  that 
he  was  the  Laplander  whose  hut  the  king  had  pro- 
mised to  visit,  and  which  stood  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ridge.  Now  the  king  went  out,  and  promised  to 
follow  him,  and  went  over  the  ridge  to  his  hut, 
although  some  of  his  men  dissuaded  him.  There 
stood  Snaefrid,  the  daughter  of  Swase,  a  most  beautiful 
girl ;  and  she  filled  a  cup  of  mead  for  the  king.  But 
he  took  hold  both  of  the  cup  and  of  her  hand.  Imme- 
diately it  was  as  if  a  hot  fire  went  through  his  body ; 
and  he  wanted  that  very  night  to  take  her  to  his  bed. 
But  Swase  said  that  should  not  be  unless  by  main 
force,  if  he  did  not  first  make  her  his  lawful  wife. 
Now  King  Harald  made  Sna3frid  his  lawful  wife,  and 
loved  her  so  passionately  that  he  forgot  his  kingdom, 
and  all  that  belonged  to  his  high  dignity.  They  had 
four  sons:  the  one  was  Sigurd  Rise;  the  others 
Halfdan  Haaleg,  Gudrod  Liome,  and  Rognvald  Kettil- 
been.  Thereafter  Snaefrid  died ;  but  her  corpse  never 
changed,  but  was  as  fresh  and  red  as  when  she  lived. 
The  king  sat   always  beside    her,   and  thought   she 


*  Now  Tofte,  near  the  head  of  GudbrandsdaL 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  295 

would  come  to  life  again.     And  so  it  went  on  for    sacxa  m. 

three  years  that  he  was  sorrowing  over  her  death, 

and  the  people  over  his  delusion.     At  last  Thorleif 

the  Wise  succeeded,  by  his  prudence,  in  curing  him  of 

his  delusion  by  accosting  him  thus  :  —  "  It  is  nowise 

wonderful,  king,  that  thou  grievest  over  so  beautiful 

and  noble  a  wife,  and  bestowest  costly  coverlets  and 

beds  of  down  on  her  corpse,  as  she  desired ;  but  these 

honours  fall  short  of  what  is  due,  as  she  still  lies  in  the 

same  clothes.     It  would  be  more  suitable  to  raise  her, 

and  change  her  dress."      As  soon  as  the  body  was 

raised  in   the  bed  all  sorts  of   corruption  and  foul 

smells  came  from  it,  and  it  was  necessary  in  all  haste 

to  gather  a  pile  of  wood  and  burn  it  ;  but  before  this 

could  be  done  the   body  turned  blue,    and  worms, 

toads,  newts,  paddocks,  and  all  sorts  of  ugly  reptiles 

came  out  of  it,  and  it  sank  into  ashes.     Now  the  king 

came  to  his  understanding  again,  threw  the  madness 

out  of  his  mind,  and  after  that  day  ruled  his  kingdom 

as  before.     He  was  strengthened  and  made  joyful  by 

his  subjects,  and  his  subjects  by  him,  and  the  country 

by  both. 

After  King  Harald  had  experienced  the  cunning  of    Chapter 
the  Laplander,  he  was  so  angry  that  he  drove  from  of  xhio- 
him  the  sons  he  had  with  her,  and  would  not  suffer  u^L^i  u.o 

I  riuine,  liie 

them  before  his  eyes.  But  one  of  them,  Gudrod  Scaid. 
Liome,  went  to  his  foster-father  Thiodolf,  and  asked 
him  to  go  to  the  king,  who  was  then  in  the  Uplands ; 
for  Thiodolf  was  a  great  friend  of  the  king.  And  so 
they  Avent,  and  came  to  the  king's  house  late  in  the 
evening,  and  sat  down  together  unnoticed  near  the 
door.  The  king  walked  up  and  down  the  floor  casting 
his  eye  along  the  benches  ;  for  he  had  a  feast  in  the 
house,  and  the  mead  was  just  mixed.  The  king 
then  murmured  out  these  lines :  — 

'^'  Tell  me^  ye  aged  grey-haired  heroes. 
Who  have  come  here  to  seek  repose, 

u  4 


296 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  III. 


Chapter. 

XXVII. 
Of  Earl 
Turf. 
Einar's 
obtaining 
Orkney. 


Wherefore  must  I  so  many  keep 
Of  such  a  set,  who,  one  and  all, 
Right  dearly  love  their  souls  to  steep, 
From  morn  till  night,  in  the  mead-bowl  ? " 

Then  Thiodolf  replies  :  — 

*•  A  certain  wealthy  chief,  I  think. 
Would  gladly  have  had  more  to  drink 
With  him,  upon  one  bloody  day. 
When  crowns  were  cracked  in  our  sword-play." 

Thiodolf  then  took  off  his  hat,  and  the  king  recognised 
him,  and  gave  him  a  friendly  reception.  Thiodolf 
then  begged  the  king  not  to  cast  off  his  sons ;  "  for 
they  would  with  great  pleasure  have  taken  a  better 
family  descent  upon  the  mother's  side,  if  the  king  had 
given  it  to  them."  The  king  assented,  and  told  him 
to  take  Gudrod  with  him  as  formerly ;  and  he  sent 
Halfdan  and  Sigurd  to  Ringerige,  and  Rognvald  to 
Hadeland,  and  all  was  done  as  the  king  ordered.  They 
grew  up  to  be  very  clever  men,  very  expert  in  all 
exercises.  In  these  times  King  Harald  sat  in  peace 
in  the  land,  and  the  land  enjoyed  quietness  and  good 
crops. 

When  Earl  Rognvald  in  More  heard  of  the  death  of 
his  brother  Earl  Sigurd,  and  that  the  vikings  were  in 
possession  of  the  country,  he  sent  his  son  Hallad  west- 
ward, who  took  the  title  of  earl  to  begin  with,  and 
had  many  men-at-arms  with  him.  When  he  arrived 
at  the  Orkney  Islands,  he  established  himself  in  the 
country ;  but  both  in  harvest,  mnter,  and  spring,  the 
vikings  cruised  about  the  isles,  plundering  the  head- 
lands, and  committing  depredations  on  the  coast. 
Then  Earl  Hallad  grew  tired  of  the  business,  resigned 
his  earldom,  took  up  again  his  rights  as  an  udaller*,  and 
afterwards  returned  eastward  into  Norway.  When  Earl 


*  This  condition  of  holldr  which  Hallad  resumed  on  resigning  the 
earldom  is  explained,  in  the  Landzleygu-balk  of  the  Gulathing  Law  of 
King  Magnus,  to  have  been  that  of  a  holder  of  inherited  udal-land,  not 
purchased,  but  received  by  hereditary  right. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  297 

Rognvald  heard  of  this  he  was  ill  pleased  with  Hallad,  saga  m. 
and  said  his  sons  were  very  unlike  their  ancestors. 
Then  said  Einar,  "  I  have  enjoyed  but  httle  honour 
among  you,  and  have  little  affection  here  to  lose :  now 
if  you  will  give  me  force  enough,  I  will  go  west  to  the 
islands,  and  promise  you  what  at  any  rate  will  please 
you  —  that  you  shall  never  see  me  again."  Earl 
Rognvald  replied,  that  he  would  be  glad  if  he  never 
came  back  ;  "  For  there  is  little  hope,"  said  he,  ''  that 
thou  will  ever  be  an  honour  to  thy  friends,  as  all  thy 
kin  on  the  mother's  side  are  born  slaves."  Earl 
Rognvald  gave  Einar  a  vessel  completely  equipped, 
and  he  sailed  with  it  into  the  West  sea  in  harvest. 
When  he  came  to  the  Orkney  Isles,  two  vikings, 
Thorer  Traeskseg,  and  Kalf  Sturfa,  were  in  his  way 
with  two  vessels.  He  attacked  them  instantly,  gained 
the  battle,  and  slew  the  two  vikings.  He  was  called 
Turf-Einar,  because  he  cut  peat  for  fuel,  there  being 
no  iire-wood,  as  in  Orkney  there  are  no  woods.  He 
afterwards  was  earl  over  the  islands,  and  was  a  mighty 
man.  He  was  ugly,  and  blind  of  an  eye,  yet  very 
sharp-sighted  mthal. 

Guttorm*  dwelt  principally  at  Tunsberg,  and  go-     Chaptkr 
verned  the  whole    of  Yiken  when  the  king  was  not  King  ehc 
there.     He  defended  the  land,  which,   at  that  time,  Eymunds- 
was  much  plundered  by   the  vikings.     There  were 
disturbances  also  up  in  Gotland  as  long  as  King  Eric 
Eymundsson  lived ;  but  he  died  when  King  Harald 
had  been  ten  years  king  of  all  Norway. 

After  Eric,  his  son  Biorn  was  king  of  Sweden  for    Chapter 
fifty  years.     He  was  father  of  Eric  the  Victorious,   c^tttrm's 
and  of  Olaf  the  father  of  Styrbiorn.     Guttorm  died  ^^eath  in 
on  a  bed  of  sickness  at  Tunsberg,  and  King  Harald     ""^  ^'^* 
gave  his  son  Guttorm  the  government  of  that  part  of 
his  dominions,  and  made  him  chief  of  it. 

*   Duke  Guttorm,  Harald  Haarfager's  uncle. 


298 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  III. 

Chapter 
XXX. 
Earl  Rogn- 
vald  burnt 
in  his 
house. 


Chapter 
XXXI. 

Halfdan 

Haaleg's 

death. 


When  King  Harald  was  forty  years  of  age  many  of 
his  sons  were  well  advanced,  and  indeed  they  all  came 
early  to  strength  and  manhood.  And  now  they  began  to 
take  it  ill  that  the  king  would  not  give  them  any  part 
of  the  kingdom,  but  put  earls  into  every  district ;  for 
they  thought  earls  were  of  inferior  birth  to  them. 
Then  Halfdan  Haaleg,  and  Gudrod  Liome  set  off  one 
spring  with  a  great  force,  and  came  suddenly  upon 
Earl  Rognvald,  earl  of  More,  and  surrounded  the 
house  in  which  he  was,  and  burnt  him  and  sixty  men 
in  it.  Thereafter  Halfdan  took  three  long-ships,  and 
fitted  them  out,  and  sailed  into  the  West  sea ;  but 
Gudrod  set  himself  down  in  the  land  which  Rognvald 
formerly  had.  Now  when  King  Harald  heard  this 
he  set  out  with  a  great  force  against  Gudrod,  who  had 
no  other  way  left  but  to  surrender,  and  he  was  sent 
to  Agder.  King  Harald  then  set  Earl  Rognvald' s  son 
Thorer  over  More,  and  gave  him  his  daughter  Alof 
in  marriage.  Thorer,  called  the  Silent,  got  the  same 
territory  his  father  Rognvald  had  possessed. 

Halfdan  Haaleg  came  very  unexpectedly  to  Orkney, 
and  Earl  Einar  immediately  fled ;  but  came  back  soon 
after,  about  harvest  time,  unnoticed  by  Halfdan. 
They  met,  and  after  a  short  battle  Halfdan  fled  the 
same  night.  Einar  and  his  men  lay  all  night  without 
tents,  and  when  it  was  light  in  the  morning  they 
searched  the  whole  island,  and  killed  every  man  they 
could  lay  hold  of.  Then  Einar  said,  "  What  is  that 
I  see  upon  the  isle  of  Ronaldsha?  Is  it  a  man  or  a 
bird  ?  Sometimes  it  raises  itself  up,  and  sometimes  lies 
down  again."  They  went  to  it,  and  found  it  was 
Halfdan  Haaleg,  and  took  him  prisoner. 

Earl  Einar  sang  the  following  song  the  evening 
before  he  went  into  this  battle :  — 

"  Where  is  the  spear  of  Rollaug  }  *  where 
Is  stout  Rolf  Ganger's  bloody  spear  ? 


*  Rollaug,  Rolf  Ganger,  Thorer  the  Silent,  and  Einar  were  all  sons 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


299 


I  see  them  not ;  yet  never  fear,  saga  hi. 

For  Einar  will  not  vengeance  spare  ' 

Against  his  father's  murderers,  though 

RoUaug  and  Rolf  are  somewhat  slow, 

And  silent  Thorer  sits  and  dreams 

At  home,  beside  the  mead-bowl's  streams." 

Thereafter  Earl  Einar  went  ujd  to  Halfdan,  and  cut 
a  spread  eagle  upon  his  back*,  by  striking  his  sword 
through  his  back  into  his  belly,  dividing  his  ribs  from 
the  back-bone  down  to  his  loins,  and  tearing  out  his 
lungs ;  and  so  Halfdan  was  killed.  Einar  then  sang :  — 

*^^  For  Rognvald's  death  my  sword  is  red  : 
Of  vengeance  it  cannot  be  said 
That  Einar's  share  is  left  unsped. 
So  now,  brave  boys,  let's  raise  a  mound,  — 
Heap  stones  and  gravel  on  the  ground 
O'er  Halfdan's  corpse  ;   this  is  the  way 
We  Norsemen  our  scatt  duties  pay." 

Then  Earl  Einar  took  possession  of  the  Orkney  Isles 
as  before.  Now  when  these  tidings  came  to  Norway, 
Halfdan's  brothers  took  it  much  to  heart,  and  thought 
that  his  death  demanded  vengeance ;  and  many  were 
of  the  same  opinion.  When  Einar  heard  this,  he 
sang :  — 

"  Many  a  stout  udal-man,  I  know, 
Has  cause  to  wish  my  head  laid  low; 
And  many  an  angry  udal  knife 
Would  gladly  drink  of  Einar's  life. 
But  ere  they  lay  Earl  Einar  low, — 
Ere  this  stout  heart  betrays  its  cause. 
Full  many  a  heart  will  writhe,  we  know, 
In  the  wolf's  fangs,  or  eagle's  claws." 

King  Harald  now  ordered  a  levy,  and  gathered  a  Chapter 
great  force,  Avith  which  he  proceeded  westward  to  King  Ha- 
Orkney ;  and  when  Earl  Einar  heard  that  King  Harald  ^Ih^e? 

reconciled. 

of  that  Earl  Rognvald  whom  Harald  Haarfager's  sons,  and  among  them 
Halfdan,  had  surprised  and  burnt  in  his  house.  They  ought,  accord- 
ing to  the  opinion  of  the  times,  to  have  taken  vengeance  as  well  as 
Einar  on  the  murderers. 

■]■  This  kind  of  punishment  was  called  rista  orn — to  cut  an  eagle. 


300 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  III.    was  come,  he  fled  over  to  Caithness, 
following  verses  on  this  occasion  :  — 


He  made  the 


Chapter 
XXXIII. 
Death  of 
Guttorm. 
Death  of 
Halfdan 
the  White. 


^'  Many  a  bearded  man  must  roam, 
An  exile  from  his  house  and  home. 
For  cow  or  horse  ;  but  Halfdan's  gore 
Is  red  on  Ronaldsha's  wild  shore. 
A  nobler  deed — on  Harald's  shield 
The  arm  of  one  who  ne'er  will  yield 
Has  left  a  scar.     Let  peasants  dread 
The  vengeance  of  the  Norsemen's  head ; 
I  reck  not  of  his  wrath,  but  sing, 
*  Do  thy  worst !  —  I  defy  thee,  king  ! '  " 

Men  and  messages,  however,  passed  between  the  king 
and  the  earl,  and  at  last  it  came  to  a  conference ;  and 
when  they  met  the  earl  submitted  the  case  altogether 
to  the  king's  decision,  and  the  king  condemned  the 
earl  and  the  Orkney  people  to  pay  a  fine  of  sixty 
marks  of  gold.  As  the  bonders  thought  this  was  too 
heavy  for  them  to  pay,  the  earl  offered  to  pay  the 
whole  if  they  would  surrender  their  udal  lands  to  him. 
This  they  all  agreed  to  do :  the  poor  because  they  had 
but  little  pieces  of  land ;  the  rich  because  they  could 
redeem  their  udal  rights  again  when  they  liked. 
Thus  the  earl  paid  the  whole  fine  to  the  king,  who 
returned  in  harvest  to  Norway.  The  earls  for  a  long 
time  afterwards  possessed  all  the  udal  lands  in  Orkney, 
until  Sigurd  Lodvison  gave  back' the  udal  rights.'^ 

While  King  Harald's  son  Guttorm  had  the  defence 
of  Viken,  he  sailed  outside  of  the  islands  on  the  coast, 
and  came  in  by  one  of  the  mouths  of  the  Gotha  river. 
When  he  lay  there  Solve  Klof  came  upon  him,  and 
immediately  gave  him  battle,  and  Guttorm  fell.  Half- 
dan  the  White  and  Halfdan  the  Black  went  out  on  an 
expedition,  and  plundered  in  the  East  sea,  and  had  a 
battle  in  Eastland  f,  where  Halfdan  the  White  fell. 

*   There  are  still  a  few  udal   properties  in  Orkney,  and  many  which 
are  described  in  the  feudal  charters  as  having  been  udal  lands  of  old. 
■j*  Eastland  is  Esthonia. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY. 


301 


Eric,  Harald's  son,  was  fostered  in  the  house  of  the    sagajh. 
herse  Thorer,  son   of  Hroald,  in  the  Fiord  district.     Chapter 

.  XXXIV. 

He  was  the  most  beloved  and  honoured  by  King  Marriage 
Harald  of  all  his  sons.  When  Eric  was  twelve  years  ^^^^^J/^ing 
old,  King  Harald  gave  him  five  long-ships,  with  which  Haraid. 
he  went  on  an  expedition,  —  first  in  the  Baltic ;  then 
southwards  to  Denmark,  Friesland  *,  and  Saxonland ; 
on  which  expedition  he  passed  four  years.  He  then 
sailed  out  into  the  West  sea,  and  plundered  in  Scot- 
land, Bretlandf,  Ireland,  and  VallandJ,  and  passed 
four  years  more  in  this  way.  Then  he  sailed  north  to 
rinmark§,  and  all  the  way  to  Biarmeland||,  where  he 
had  many  a  battle,  and  won  many  a  victory.  When 
he  came  back  to  Finmark,  his  men  found  a  girl  in  a 
Lapland  hut,  whose  equal  for  beauty  they  never  had 
seen.  She  said  her  name  was  Gunhild,  and  that  her 
father  dwelt  in  Halogaland,  and  was  called  Ozur  Tote. 
''  I  am  here,"  she  said,  ''  to  learn  Lapland-art,  from 
two  of  the  most  knowing  Laplanders  in  all  Finmark, 
who  are  now  out  hunting.  They  both  want  me  in 
marriage.  They  are  so  skilful  that  they  can  hunt  out 
traces  either  upon  the  frozen  or  the  thawed  earth, 
like  dogs  ;  and  they  can  run  so  swiftly  on  snow-scates, 
that  neither  man  nor  beast  can  come  near  them  in 
speed.  They  hit  whatever  they  take  aim  at,  and  thus 
kill  every  man  who  comes  near  them.     When  they 

*  Friesland  appears  to  have  been  the  name  given  to  the  w^hole  coast 
from  the  Eyder  in  Schleswig  to  North  Holland,  aiid  to  have  been  called 
Saxonland  (Saxland)  or  Friesland. 

•]■  Bretland  (Britton  land)  was  that  part  of  Britain  inhabited  by  the 
ancient  inhabitants.  The  sagas  give  the  name  of  England  only  to  the 
parts  inhabited  by  the  Anglo-Saxons.  "Wales,  Cornwall,  and  the  west 
coast  of  the  island,  are  always  called  Bretland. 

"I*  Valland,  the  west  coast  of  France,  in  which  the  inhabitants  of 
Wales  and  Cornwall  settled  in  the  5th  century. 

§  Finmark  is  the  country  we  call  Lapland  in  the  north  of  Norway 
and  Sweden. 

II  Biarmeland  was  the  coast  of  the  White  Sea  about  the  mouth  of 
the  Dwina,  and  now  the  Russian  province  of  Archangel. 


302  CHKONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  III,  are  angry  the  very  earth  turns  away  in  terror,  and 
whatever  Hving  thmg  they  look  upon  then  falls  dead. 
Now  ye  must  not  come  in  their  way ;  but  I  will  hide 
you  here  in  the  hut,  and  ye  must  try  to  get  them 
killed."  They  agreed  to  it,  and  she  hid  them,  and 
then  took  a  leather  bag,  in  which  they  thought  there 
were  ashes  which  she  took  in  her  hand,  and  strewed 
both  outside  and  inside  of  the  hut.  Shortly  after  the 
Laplanders  came  home,  and  asked  who  had  been  there  ; 
and  she  answered,  "  Nobody  has  been  here."  "  That 
is  wonderful,"  said  they ;  "  we  followed  the  traces  close 
to  the  hut,  and  can  find  none  after  that."  Then  they 
kindled  a  fire,  and  made  ready  their  meat,  and  Gun- 
hild  prepared  her  bed.  It  had  so  happened  that 
Gunhild  had  slept  the  three  nights  before,  but  the 
Laplanders  had  watched  the  one  upon  the  other, 
being  jealous  of  each  other.  "  Now,"  she  said  to 
the  Laplanders,  "  come  here,  and  lie  down  one 
on  each  side  of  me."  On  which  they  were  very 
glad  to  do  so.  She  laid  an  arm  round  the  neck  of 
each,  and  they  went  to  sleep  directly.  She  roused 
them  up  ;  but  they  fell  to  sleep  again  instantly,  and 
so  soundly  that  she  scarcely  could  waken  them. 
She  even  raised  them  up  in  the  bed,  and  still  they 
slept.  Thereupon  she  took  two  great  seal-skin  bags, 
and  put  their  heads  in  them,  and  tied  them  fast  under 
their  arms ;  and  then  she  gave  a  wink  to  the  king's 
men.  They  run  forth  with  their  weapons,  kill  the 
two  Laplanders,  and  drag  them  out  of  the  hut.  That 
same  night  came  such  a  dreadful  thunder-storm  that 
they  could  not  stir.  Next  morning  they  came  to  the 
ship,  taking  Gunhild  with  them,  and  presented  her  to 
Eric.  Eric  and  his  followers  then  sailed  southwards 
to  Halogaland;  and  he  sent  word  to  Ozur  Tote,  the 
girl's  father,  to  meet  him.  Eric  said  he  would  take  his 
daughter  in  marriage,  to  which  Ozur  Tote  consented ; 
and  Eric  took  Gunhild,  and  went  southwards  with  her. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  303 

When  King  Harald  was  fifty  years  of  age  many    saga^ii. 
of  his  sons  were  e-rown  up,  and  some  were    dead,     chapter 

•  .  .  XXXV 

Many  of  them  committed  acts  of  great  violence  in  Haraiddi- 
the  country,  and  were  in  discord  amone;  themselves,  yi^es  his 

pi«  kingdom 

They  drove  some  of  the  kmg  s  earls  out  of  their  pro-  among  his 
perties,  and  even  killed  some  of  them.  Then  the  king  ^°"^' 
called  together  a  numerous  Thing  in  the  south  part 
of  the  country,  and  summoned  to  it  all  the  people  of 
the  Uplands.  At  this  Thing  he  gave  to  all  his  sons 
the  title  of  king,  and  made  a  law  that  his  descendants 
in  the  male  line  should  each  succeed  to  the  kingly 
title  and  dignity;  but  his  descendants  by  the  female 
side  only  to  that  of  earl.  And  he  divided  the  country 
among  them  thus: — Vingulmark,  Kaumarige,  West- 
fold,  and  Thelemark,  he  bestowed  on  Olaf,  Biorn, 
Sigtryg,  Frode,  and  Thorgil.  Hedemark  and  Gud- 
brandsdal  he  gave  to  Dag,  Eing,  and  Eagnar.  To 
Snaefrid's  sons  he  gave  Eingerige,  Hadeland,  Thoten, 
and  the  lands  thereto  belonging.  His  son  Guttorm, 
as  before  mentioned,  he  had  set  over  the  country 
from  Swinesund  to  the  Glommen,  and  to  defend  the 
country  eastwards.  King  Harald  himself  generally 
dwelt  in  the  middle  of  the  country,  and  Eaerek  and 
Gudrod  were  generally  with  his  court,  and  had 
great  estates  in  Hordeland  and  in  Sogn.  King  Eric 
was  also  with  his  father  King  Harald  ;  and  the  king 
loved  and  regarded  him  the  most  of  all  his  sons,  and 
gave  him  Halogaland,  and  North  More,  and  Eaums- 
dale.  North  in  Drontheim  he  gave  Halfdan  the 
Black,  Halfdan  the  White,  and  Sigurd  land  to  rule 
over.  In  each  of  these  districts  he  gave  his  sons  the 
one  half  of  his  revenues,  together  with  the  right  to 
sit  on  a  high  seat, — a  step  higher  than  earls,  but  a  step 
lower  than  his  own  high  seat.  His  king's  seat  each 
of  his  sons  wanted  for  himself  after  his  death,  but  he 
himself  destined  it  for  Eric.  The  Drontheim  people 
wanted  Halfdan  the  Black  to  succeed  to   it.     The 


304 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


s^GAj.u.  people  of  Yiken,  and  the  Uplands,  wanted  those  under 
whom  they  lived.  And  thereupon  new  quarrels  arose 
among  the  brothers ;  and  because  they  thought  their 
dominions  too  little,  they  drove  about  in  piratical 
expeditions.  In  this  way,  as  before  related,  Guttorm 
fell  at  the  river  Quislen,  slain  by  Solve  Klofe  ;  upon 
which  Olaf  took  the  kingdom  he  had  possessed. 
Halfdan  the  White  fell  in  Eastland,  Halfdan  Haaleg 
in  Orkney.  King  Harald  gave  ships  of  war  to  Thor- 
gils  and  Frode,  with  which  they  went  westward  on  a 
viking  cruise,  and  plundered  in  Scotland,  Ireland,  and 
Bretland.  They  were  the  first  of  the  Northmen  who 
took  Dublin.  It  is  said  that  Erode  got  poisoned 
drink  there ;  but  Thorgil  was  a  long  time  king  over 
Dublin,  until  he  fell  into  a  snare  of  the  Irish,  and 
was  killed. 

Eric  Bloodyaxe  expected  to  be  head  king  over  all 

his  brothers,  and  King  Harald  intended  he  should  be 

and   the  father    and    son   lived   long  together. 


Chapter 
XXXVI. 

Death  of 
Rognvald 
Rettilbein. 


Chapter 
XXXVII. 


so 

Hognvald  Rettilbein  governed  Hadeland,  and  allowed 
himself  to  be  instructed  in  the  arts  of  witchcraft,  and 
became  a  great  warlock.  Now  King  Harald  was  a 
hater  of  all  witchcraft.  There  was  a  warlock  in  Hor- 
deland  called  Yitgeir  ;  and  when  the  king  sent  a 
message  to  him  that  he  should  give  up  his  art  of 
witchcraft,  he  replied  in  this  verse :  — 

"  The  danger  surely  is  not  great 
From  wizards  born  of  mean  estate, 
When  Harald's  son  in  Hadeland, 
King  Rognvald,  to  the  art  lays  hand." 

But  when  King  Harald  heard  this.  King  Eric  Bloody- 
axe went  by  his  orders  to  the  Uplands,  and  burned 
his  brother  Rognvald  in  a  house,  along  with  eighty 
other  warlocks  ;  which  work  was  much  praised. 

Gudrod  Liome  was  in  winter  on  a  friendly  visit  to 


Of  Gudrod  his  foster-father  Thiodolf  in  Huine,  and  had  a  well- 
lome.        manned  ship,  with  which  he  wanted  to  go  north  to 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  305 

Eogaland.    It  was  blowing  a  heavy  storm  at  the  thue  ;    saga  m. 
but  Gudrocl  was  bent  on  sailing,  and  would  not  con- 
sent to  wait.     Thiodolf  sang  thus :  — 

*'  Wait,  Gudrodj  till  the  storm  is  past, — 
Loose  not  thy  long-ship  while  the  blast 
Howls  over  head  so  furiously, — 
Trust  not  thy  long-ship  to  the  sea,  — 
Loose  not  thy  long-ship  from  the  shore  : 
Hark  to  the  ocean's  angry  roar  ! 
See  how  the  very  stones  are  tost. 
By  raging  waves  high  on  the  coast! 
Stay,  Gudrod,  till  the  tempest's  o'er  — 
Deep  runs  the  sea  off  Jeddern's  shore." 

Gudrod  set  off  in  spite  of  what  Thiodolf  could  say ; 
and  when  they  came  off  Jedderen  the  vessel  sunk 
with  them,  and  all  on  board  were  lost. 

King  Harald's  son,  Biorn,   ruled  over  Westfold  at    Chapter 
that  time,  and  generally  lived  at  Tunsberg,  and  went  King  Biorn 
but  little  on  war  expeditions.    Tunsbero;  at  that  time  ^\^  ^^'■" 

•^  o  chant  s 

was  much  frequented  by  merchant  vessels,  both  from  death. 
Viken  and  the  north  country,  and  also  from  the  south, 
from  Denmark,  and  Saxonland.  King  Biorn  had  also 
merchant  ships  on  voyages  to  other  lands,  by  which 
he  procured  for  himself  costly  articles,  and  such 
things  as  he  thought  needful ;  and  therefore  his  bro- 
thers called  him  the  Freio^htman,  and  the  Merchant. 
Biorn  was  a  man  of  sense  and  understanding,  and 
promised  to  become  a  good  ruler.  He  made  a  good 
and  suitable  marriage,  and  had  a  son  by  his  wife,  who 
was  named  Gudrod.  Eric  Bloodyaxe  came  from  his 
Baltic  cruise  with  ships  of  war,  and  a  great  force,  and 
required  his  brother  Biorn  to  deliver  to  him  King 
Harald's  share  of  the  scatt  and  incomes  of  Westfold. 
But  it  had  always  been  the  custom  before,  that  Biorn 
himself  cither  delivered  the  money  into  the  king's 
hands,  or  sent  men  of  his  own  with  it ;  and  therefore 
he  would  continue  with  the  old  custom,  and  would 
not  deliver  the  money.  Eric  again  wanted  provisions, 
tents,  and  liquor.   The  brothers  quarrelled  about  this  ; 

VOL.  I.  X 


306  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  III.  i3ut  Eric  got  nothing,  and  left  the  town.  Biorn  went 
also  out  of  the  town  towards  evening  up  to  Seaheim. 
In  the  night  Eric  came  back  after  Biorn,  and  came  to 
Seaheim  just  as  Biorn  and  his  men  were  seated  at  table 
drinking.  Eric  surrounded  the  house  in  which  they 
were ;  but  Biorn  with  his  men  went  out  and  fought. 
Biorn,  and  many  men  with  him,  fell.  Eric,  on  the  other 
hand,  got  a  great  booty,  and  proceeded  northwards. 
But  this  work  was  taken  very  ill  by  the  people  of 
Yiken,  and  Eric  was  much  disliked  for  it ;  and  the 
report  went  that  King  Olaf  would  avenge  his  brother 
Biorn,  whenever  opportunity  oiFered.  King  Biorn  lies 
in  the  Freightman's  mound  at  Seaheim.* 
Chapter  King  Eric  wcut  iu  wlutcr  northwards  to  More,  and 
ofui^r^'  was  at  a  feast  in  Solva,  within  the  point  Agdanesf; 
conciliation  g^j^d  whcu  Halfdau  heard  of  it  he  set  out  with  his  men, 
kings.  and  surrounded  the  house  in  which  they  were.  Eric 
slept  in  a  room  Avhich  stood  detached  by  itself,  and  he 
escaped  into  the  forest  with  five  others ;  but  Halfdan 
and  his  men  burnt  the  main  house,  with  all  the  people 
Avho  were  in  it.  With  this  news  Eric  came  to  Kins: 
Harald,  who  was  very  wroth  at  it,  and  assembled  a 
great  force  against  the  Drontheim  people.  When 
Halfdan  the  Black  heard  this  he  levied  ships  and 
men,  so  that  he  had  a  great  force,  and  proceeded  with 
it  to  Stad,  within  Thorsberg.  King  Harald  lay  with 
his  •  men  at  Reinplain.  Now  people  went  between 
them,  and  among  others  a  clever  man  called  Guttorm 
Sindre,  who  was  then  in  Halfdan's  army,  but  had 
been  formerly  in  the  service  of  King  Harald,  and  was 
a  great  friend  of  both.  Guttorm  was  a  great  scald, 
and  had  once  composed  a  song  both  about  the  father 
and  the  son,  for  which  they  had  offered  him  a  reward. 

*  Seaheim,  called  afterwards  Semb  or  Sern_,  is  a  farm  now  called 
Jarlsberg,  about  two  miles  from  the  town  of  Tunsberg.  The  Freight- 
man's  mound  is  still  to  be  seen. 

^  Agdaness  is  the  south  point  of  land  at  the  entrance  of  the  Dron- 
theim fiord. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


307 


But  he  would  take  nothing;  but  only  asked  that,  saga  m. 
some  day  or  other,  they  should  grant  him  any  request 
he  should  make,  which  they  promised  to  do.  Now  he 
j)resented  himself  to  King  Harald,  —  brought  words 
of  peace  between  them,  ancl  made  the  request  to  them 
both  that  they  should  be  reconciled.  So  highly  did 
the  king  esteem  him,  that  in  consequence  of  his  re- 
quest they  were  reconciled.  Many  other  able  men 
promoted  this  business  as  well  as  he ;  and  it  was  so 
settled  that  Halfdan  should  retain  the  whole  of  his 
kingdom  as  he  had  it  before,  and  should  let  his  brother 
Eric  sit  in  peace. 


Earl  Hakon  Griotgardsson  of  Lade  had  the  whole 


Chapteh 
XL. 


rule  over  Drontheim  when  King  Harald  was  any  p^j^th  oi 
where  away  in  the  country  ;  and  Hakon  stood  higher  Hakon  the 
with  the  king  than  any  in  the  country  of  Dron- 
theim. After  Hakon's  death  his  son  Sigurd  suc- 
ceeded to  his  power  in  Drontheim,  and  was  the  earl, 
and  had  his  mansion  at  Lade.  King  Harald's  sons, 
Halfdan  the  Black,  and  Sigrod,  who  had  been  before 
in  the  house  of  his  father  Earl  Hakon,  continued  to 
be  brought  up  in  his  house.  Tke  sons  of  Harald  and 
Sigurd  were  about  the  same  age.  Earl  Sigurd  was 
one  of  the  wisest  men  of  his  time,  and  married  Berg- 
liot,  a  daughter  of  Earl  Thorer  the  Silent ;  and  her 
mother  was  Alof  Aarbot,  a  daughter  of  Harald  Haar- 
fager.  When  King  Harald  began  to  grow  old  he 
generally  dwelt  on  some  of  his  great  farms  in  Hor da- 
land  ;  namely,  Alrekstad,  or  Sa^im,  Fitiar,  Utstein,  or 
Augvaldsness  in  the  island  Kormt.  When  Harald 
was  seventy  years  of  age  he  begat  a  son  with  a  girl 
called  Thora  Mosterstang,  because  her  family  came 
from  Moster.  She  was  descended  from  good  people, 
being  connected  with  Horda-Kaare ;  and  was  moreover 
a  very  stout  and  remarkably  handsome  girl.  She  was 
called  the  king's  servant  girl ;  for  at  that  time  many 
were  subject  to  service  to  the  king  who  were  of  good 

X  2 


308 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  III.  birth,  both  men  and  women.  Then  it  was  the  custom, 
with  people  of  consideration,  to  choose  with  great  care 
the  man  who  should  pour  water  over  their  children, 
and  give  them  a  name.  Now  when  the  time  came 
that  Thora,  who  was  then  at  Moster,  expected  her 
confinement,  she  would  go  to  King  Harald,  who  was 
then  living  at  Sseim ;  and  she  went  northwards  in  a 
ship  belonging  to  Earl  Sigurd.  They  lay  at  night 
close  to  the  land ;  and  there  Thora  brought  forth  a 
child  upon  the  land,  up  among  the  rocks,  close  to  the 
ship's  gangway,  and  it  was  a  man  child.  Earl  Sigurd 
poured  water  over  him,  and  called  him  Plakon^,  after 
his  own  father,  Hakon  earl  of  Lade.  The  boy  soon 
grew  handsome,  large  in  size,  and  very  like  his  father 
King  Harald.  King  Harald  let  him  follow  his  mo- 
ther, and  they  were  both  in  the  king's  house  as  long 
as  he  was  an  infant. 

At  this  time  a  king  called  Athelstan  had  taken 
the  kingdom  of  England.  He  sent  men  to  Norway 
to  King  Harald,  with  the  errand  that  the  messengers 
should  present  him  with  a  sword,  with  the  hilt  and 

*  It  may  be  doubted  if  baptism  with  water  was  really  an  observance 
in  the  Odin  religion.  It  could  have  no  meaning  to  the  Odin  worship- 
pers; and  if  really  used  must  have  been  borrowed  from  Christianity, 
and  used  as  a  charm.  It  is  very  possible  that  all  the  passages  about 
pouring  water  over  a  child,  on  giving  it  a  name,  are  interpolated  by  the 
scald  in  relating  the  sagas,  in  order  to  avoid  the  awkwardness  of  making 
the  immediate  ancestors  of  those  to  whom  he  was  relating  them  hea- 
thens who  had  died  unbaptized.  We  find  those  who  attained  power 
and  transmitted  it  to  their  descendants  have  had  water  poured  over 
them  at  their  birth ;  but  of  others  nothing  of  the  kind  is  related. 
Harald  Haarfager,  this  Hakon,  Olaf,  Magnus,  are  stated  to  have  been 
thus  baptized  ;  but  we  hear  nothing  of  the  baptism  of  any  of  Haar- 
fager's  other  sons,  who  happened  not  to  leave  posterity  in  power  after 
Christianity  was  established.  Eric  Bloodyaxe,  his  favourite  and  eldest 
son,  appears  not  to  have  been  baptized.  Baptism  does  not  appear  con- 
nected with  any  thing  in  the  Odin  religion  that  we  can  gather  from  the 
Eddas.  It  is  possibly  a  courtly  compliment  of  the  scald,  to  have  given 
his  heroes  this  Christain  rite  in  telling  their  story  to  their  Christianised 
descendants.  We  find,  in  Chapter  43.,  that  Athelstan  had  Hakon  bap- 
tized and  instructed  in  the  Christian  faith ;  so  that  this  first  baptism 
seems  doubtful. 


Chatter 
XLI. 

King 

Athelstan's 

message. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


309 


handle  gilt,  and  also  the  whole  sheath  adorned  with  saga  m. 
gold  and  silver,  and  set  with  precious  jewels.  The 
ambassadors  presented  the  sword-hilt  to  the  king, 
saying,  "  Here  is  a  sword  which  King  Athelstan 
sends  thee,  with  the  request  that  thou  wilt  accept 
it."  The  king  took  the  sword  by  the  handle  ;  where- 
upon the  ambassadors  said,  "  Now  thou  hast  taken 
the  sword  according  to  our  king's  desire,  and  there- 
fore aa*t  thou  his  subject,  as  thou  hast  taken  his 
sword.^'  King  Harald  saw  now  that  this  was  a  jest, 
for  he  aVouM  be  subject  to  no  man.  But  he  remem- 
bered it  was  his  rule,  whenever  any  thing  raised  his 
anger,  to  collect  himself,  and  let  his  passion  run  off, 
and  then  take  the  matter  into  consideration  coolly. 
Now  he  did  so,  and  consulted  his  friends,  who  all 
gave  him  the  advice  to  let  the  ambassadors,  in  the 
first  place,  go  home  in  safety. 

The  following  summer  King  Harald  sent  a  ship  Chapter 
westward  to  England,  and  gave  the  command  of  it  Hauk's 
to  Hauk  Haabrok.  He  was  a  2:reat  warrior,  and  very  i^^^'^fy}^ 
dear  to  the  king.  Into  his  hands  he  gave  his  son 
Hakon.  Hauk  proceeded  westward  to  England,  and 
found  the  king  in  London,  where  there  was  just  at 
the  time  a  great  feast  and  entertainment.  When  they 
came  to  the  hall,  Hauk  told  his  men  how  they  should 
conduct  themselves ;  namely,  that  he  w^ho  went  first 
in  should  go  last  out,  and  all  should  stand  in  a 
row  at  the  table,  at  equal  distance  from  each  other ; 
and  each  should  have  his  sword  at  his  left  side,  but 
should  fasten  his  cloak  so  that  his  sword  should  not 
be  seen.  Then  they  went  into  the  hall,  thirty  in 
number.  Hauk  went  up  to  the  king  and  saluted 
him,  and  the  king  bade  him  welcome.  Then  Hauk 
took  the  child  Hakon,  and  set  it  on  the  king's  knee. 
The  king  looks  at  the  boy,  and  asks  Hauk  what  the 
meaning  of  this  is.  Hauk  replies,  ''  Harald  the 
king  bids  thee  foster  his  servant-girl's  child."     The 

X  3 


to 


310  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  TIL   king  was  in  great  anger,  and  seized  a  sword  which 
lay  beside  him,  and  drew  it,  as  if  he  was  going  to  kill 
the  child.     Hauk  says,   "  Thou  hast  borne  him  on  thy 
knee,  and  thou  canst  murder  him  if  thou  wilt ;  but 
thou  wilt  not  make  an  end  of  all  King  Harald's  sons 
by  so  doing."     On  that   Hauk  went  out  with  all  his 
men,  and  took  the  way  direct  to  his  ship,  and  put  to 
sea, — for  they  were  ready,  —  and  came  back  to  King 
Harald.     The  king  was  highly  pleased  mth  this ;  for 
it  is  the  common  observation  of  all  people,  that  the 
man  who  fosters  another's  children  is  of  less  consi- 
deration than  the  other.    From  these  transactions  be- 
tween the  two  kings,  it  appears  that  each  wanted  to  be 
held  greater  than  the  other  ;  but  in  truth  there  was 
no  injury  to  the  dignity  of  either,  for  each  was  the 
upper  king  in  his  own  kingdom  till  his  dying  day. 
Chapter        King  Athclstau  had  Hakon  baptized,  and  brought 
mk^n,  the  ^P  i^  "the  right  faith,  and  in  good  habits,  and  all  sorts 
foster-son     q{  excrciscs,  and  he  loved  Hakon  above  all  his  rela- 
stan,isbap-  tious ;  and  Hakou  was  beloved  by  all  men.    Athelstan 
*^^^^*  was  a  man  of  understanding  and  eloquence,  and  also 

a  good  Christian.     King  Athelstan   gave    Hakon  a 
sword,  of  which  the  hilt  and  handle  were  gold,  and 
the  blade  still  better ;  for  with  it  Hakon  cut  down  a 
mill-stone  to  the  centre  eye,  and  the  sword  thereafter 
was  called  the  Quernbiter.    Better  sword  never  came 
into  Norway,  and  Hakon  carried  it  to  his  dying  day. 
Chapter        Whcu  King  Harald  was  eighty  years  of  age  he  be- 
Eric  is        came  very  heavy,  and  unable  to  travel  through  the 
brought  to    country,  or  do   the    business  of  a  kino*.     Then    he 

the  sove-  ii«  t^    •  i«i«i  i 

reignty.  brought  liis  SOU  Kric  to  his  high  seat,  and  gave  him 
the  power  and  command  over  the  whole  land.  Now 
when  King  Harald's  other  sons  heard  this.  King 
Halfdan  the  Black  also  took  a  king's  high  seat,  and 
took  all  Drontheim  land,  with  the  consent  of  all  the 

*  Quern  is  still  the  name  of  the  small  hand  mill-stones  still  found 
in  use  among  the  cottars  in  Orkney,  Shetland,  and  the  Hebrides. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  311 

people,  under  his  rule  as  upper  king.  After  the  death  saga  m. 
of  Biorn  the  Merchant,  his  brother  Olaf  took  the 
command  over  Westfold,  and  took  Biorn's  son, 
Gudrod,  as  his  foster-child.  Olaf's  son  was  called 
Tryggve ;  and  the  two  foster-bothers  were  about  the 
same  age,  and  were  hopeful  and  clever.  Tryggve, 
especially,  was  remarkable  as  a  stout  and  strong  man. 
Now  when  the  people  of  Yiken  heard  that  those  of 
Horden  had  taken  Eric  as  upper  king,  they  did  the 
same,  and  made  Olaf  the  upper  king  in  Viken,  which 
kingdom  he  retained.  Eric  did  not  like  tliis  at  all. 
Two  years  after  this,  Halfdan  the  Black  died  sud- 
denly at  a  feast  in  Drontheim,  and  the  general  report 
was,  that  Gunhild  had  bribed  a  witch  to  givQ  him  a 
death-drink.  Thereafter  the  Drontheim  people  took 
Sigrod  to  be  their  king. 

Kino;  Harald  lived  three  years  after  he  e^ave  Eric    Ckapter 

.  .  .  .  XLV 

the  supreme  authority  over  his  kingdom,  and  lived  i-^^-^„  Ha- 
mostly  on  his  great  farms  which  he  possessed,  some  raid's  death, 
in  Eoixaland,  and  some  in  Hordaland.  Eric  and  Gun- 
hild  had  a  son,  on  whom  King  Harald  poured  water, 
and  gave  him  his  own  name,  and  the  promise  that 
he  should  be  king  after  his  father  Eric.  King  Harald 
married  most  of  his  daughters  within  the  country  to 
his  earls,  and  from  them  many  great  families  are 
descended.  Kins;  Harald  died  on  a  bed  of  sickness  in 
Eogaland,  and  was  buried  under  a  mound  at  Hougar 
in  Kormsund.  In  Hougasund  is  a  church,  now 
standing  ;  and  not  far  from  the  churchyard,  at  the 
north-west  side,  is  King  Harald  Haarfager's  mound ; 
but  his  grave-stone  stands  west  of  the  church,  and  is 
thirteen  feet  and  a  half  high,  and  two  ells  broad. 
The  grave,  mound,  and  stone,  are  there  to  the  present 
day.*     Harald  Haarfager  was,  according  to  the  report 

*  The  stone  and  some  remains  of  the  mound  are  still  to  be  seen  at 
Gar,  or  the  Gaard,  the  principal  farm-house  in  the  parish  of  Korm- 
sund. 

X  4 


312 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


Chapter 
XLVI. 

The  death 
of  Olaf 
and  of 
Sigrod. 


SAGA  III.  of  men  of  knowledge,  of  remarkably  handome  appear- 
ance, great  and  strong,  and  very  generous  and  affa- 
ble to  Ills  men.  He  was  a  great  warrior  in  his  youth  ; 
and  people  think  that  this  was  foretold  by  his  mo- 
ther's dream  before  his  birth,  as  the  lowest  part  of 
the  tree  she  dreamt  of  was  red  as  blood.  The  stem 
again  was  green  and  beautiful,  which  betokened  his 
flourishing  kingdom ;  and  that  the  tree  was  white  at 
the  top  showed  that  he  should  reach  a  grey-haired 
old  age.  The  branches  and  twigs  showed  forth  his 
posterity,  spread  over  the  whole  land :  for  of  his  race, 
ever  since,  Norway  has  always  had  kings.* 

King  Eric  took  all  the  revenues  which  the  king 
had  in  the  middle  of  the  country,  the  next  winter 
after  King  Harald's  decease.      But  Olaf  took  all  the 
revenues  eastward  in  Yiken,  and  their  brother  Sigrod 
all  that  of  the  Drontheim  country.     Eric  was  very 
ill  pleased  with  this  ;  and  the  report  went  that  he 
would  attempt  with  force  to  get  the  sole  sovereignty 
over  the  country,  in  the  same  way  as  his  father  had 
given  it  to  him.     Now  when  Olaf  and  Sigrod  heard 
this,  messengers  passed  between  them  ;  and  after  ap- 
pointing a  meeting  place,   Sigrod  went  eastward  in 
spring  to  Viken,  and  he  and  his  brother  Olaf  met  at 
Tunsberg,  and  remained  there  a  while.     The  same 
spring  King  Eric  levied  a  great  force,  and  ships,  and 
steered  towards  Yiken.     He  got  such  a  strong  steady 
gale  that  he  sailed  night  and  day,  and  came  faster 
than  the  news  of  him.     When  he  came  to  Tunsberg, 
Olaf  and  Sigrod,  with  their  forces,  went  out  of  the 
town  a  little  eastward  to  a  ridge,  where  they  drew  up 
their  men  in  battle  order ;  but   as   Eric  had  many 
more  men,  he  won  the  battle.     Both  brothers,  Olaf 
and  Sigrod,  fell  there ;  and  both  their  grave-mounds 

*  According  to  Schoning,  Harald  Haarfager  died  in  Q36.  His  son 
Hakon  was  born  923,  and  sent  to  England  in  931.  Athelstan  of  Eng- 
land died,  according  to  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  in  October,  94*1. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  313 


are  upon  the  ridge  where  they  fell.  Then  King  Eric 
went  through  Viken,  and  subdued  it,  and  remained 
far  into  summer.  Gudrod  and  Try ggve  fled  to  the 
Uplands.  Eric  was  a  stout  handsome  man,  strong, 
and  very  manly, —  a  great  and  fortunate  man  of  war; 
but  bad-minded,  gruff,  unfriendly,  and  silent.  Gun- 
hild,  his  wife,  was  the  most  beautiful  of  women,  — 
clever,  with  much  knowledge,  and  lively ;  but  a  very 
false  person,  and  very  cruel  in  disposition.  The 
children  of  King  Eric  and  Gunhild  Avere,  Gamle,  the 
oldest;  then  Guttorm,  Harald,  Ragnfrid,  Ragnhild, 
Erling,  Gudrod,  and  Sigurd  Sieve.  All  were  hand- 
some, and  of  manly  appearance. 


SAGA  III. 


314 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


lY. 

sAGA^v.  HAKON  THE  GOOD'S  SAGA. 

Chapter  Hakon  *,  Atlielstaii's  foster-son,  was  in  England  at  the 
Hakon  time  he  heard  of  his  father  King  Harald's  death,  and 
king!"  ^^  immediately  made  himself  ready  to  depart.  King 
Athelstan  gave  him  men,  and  a  choice  of  good  ships, 
and  fitted  him  out  for  his  journey  most  excellently. 
In  harvest  time  he  came  to  Norway,  where  he  heard 
of  the  death  of  his  brothers,  and  that  King  Eric  was 
then  in  Yiken.  Then  Hakon  sailed  northwards  to 
Drontheim,  where  he  went  to  Sigurd  earl  of  Lade, 
who  was  the  ablest  man  in  Norway.  He  gave  Hakon 
a  good  reception  ;  and  they  made  a  league  with  each 
other,  by  which  Hakon  promised  great  power  to  Si- 
gurd if  he  was  made  king.  They  assembled  then  a 
numerous  Thing,  and  Sigurd  the  earl  recommended 
Hakon's  cause  to  the  Thing  f,  and  proposed  him  to 
the  bonders  as  king.  Then  Hakon  himself  stood  up 
and  spoke ;  and  the  people  said  to  each  other,  two  and 
two,  as  they  heard  him,  "  Harald  Haarfager  is  come 
again,  and  grown  young."  The  beginning  of  Ha- 
kon's speech  was,  that  he  offered  himself  to  the  bon- 
ders as  king,  and  desired  from  them  the  title  of  king, 
and  aid  and  forces  to  defend  the  kingdom.  He  pro- 
mised, on  the  other  hand,  to  make  all  the  bonders  udal- 
holders,  and  give  every  man  udal  rights  to  the  land 
he  lived  on.     This  speech  met  such  joyful  applause, 

*  Hakon  the  Good,  Athelstan's  foster-son,  reigned  from  about  the 
year  937  to  the  year  96 1. 

■j*  This  reference  to  a  Thing  appears  from  the  saga  to  have  been  ne- 
cessary, whatever  the  claim  from  hereditary  right  by  succession  may 
have  been  to  the  kingdom. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


315 


that  the  whole  public  cried  and  shouted  that  they  saga  i v. 
would  take  him  to  be  king.  And  so  it  was  that  the  ' 
Drontheim  people  took  Hakon,  who  was  then  fifteen 
years  old,  for  king;  and  he  took  a  court  or  body- 
guard, and  servants,  and  proceeded  through  the 
country.  The  news  reached  the  Uplands  that  the 
people  in  Drontheim  had  taken  to  themselves  a  king, 
who  in  every  respect  was  like  King  Harald  Haarfa- 
ger, —  with  the  difference,  that  Harald  had  made  all 
the  people  of  the  land  vassals*,  and  unfree ;  but  this 
Hakon  wished  well  to  every  man,  and  offered  the 
bonders  to  give  them  their  udal  rights  again,  which 
Harald  had  taken  from  them.  All  were  rejoiced  at 
this  news,  and  it  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth, — it 
flew,  like  fire  in  dry  grass,  through  the  whole  land, 
and  eastward  to  the  land's  end.  Many  bonders  came 
from  the  Uplands  to  meet  King  Hakon.  Some  sent 
messages,  some  tokens ;  and  all  to  the  same  effect  — 
that  his  men  they  would  be :  and  the  king  received 
all  thankfully. 

Early  in  winter,  the  king  went  to  the  Uplands,  and    Chapter 
summoned  the  people  to  a  Thing  ;  and  there  streamed  King 
all  to  him  who  could  come.     He  was  proclaimed  kins;  ^^^'^^"'^ 

i  o    progress 

at  every  Thing;  and  then  he  proceeded  eastward  to  through  the 
Viken,  where  his  brother's  sons,  Tryggve  and  Gudrod,  '^^^^  ^^' 
and  many  others,  came  unto  him,  and  complained  of 
the  sorrow  and  evil  his  brother  Eric  had  wrought. 
The  hatred  to  King  Eric  grew  more  and  more,  the 
more  liking  all  men  took  to  King  Hakon ;  and  they 
got  more  boldness  to  say  what  they  thought.  King 
Hakon  gave  Tryggve  and  Gudrod  the  title  of  kings, 
and  the  dominions  which  King  Harald  had  bestowed 
on  their  fathers. f     Tryggve  got  Ranrige  and  Vingul- 


*  The  policy  of  Harald  Haarfager  had  evidently  been  to  introduce 
the  feudal  system  into  his  kingdom,  and  it  failed  by  his  sons  requiring 
their  udal  right  to  equal  shares  in  the  kingdom. 

"I*  Tryggve  and  Gudrod  were  grandsons  of  Haarfager. 


316 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV. 


Chapter 
III. 
Eric's  de- 
parture 
from  the 
country. 


mark,  and  Gudrod  Westfold ;  but  as  they  were  young, 
and  in  the  years  of  childhood,  he  appointed  able  men 
to  rule  the  land  for  them.  He  gave  them  the  country 
on  the  same  conditions  as  it  had  been  given  before, — 
that  they  should  have  half  of  the  scatt  and  revenues 
with  him.  Towards  spring  King  Hakon  returned 
north,  over  the  Uplands,  to  Drontheim. 

King  Hakon,  early  in  spring,  collected  a  great 
army  at  Drontheim,  and  fitted  out  ships.  The  people 
of  Yiken  had  also  a  great  force  on  foot,  and  intended 
to  join  Hakon.  King  Eric  also  levied  people  in  the 
middle  of  the  country ;  but  it  went  badly  with  him  to 
gather  people,  for  the  leading  men  left  him,  and  went 
over  to  Hakon.  As  he  saw  himself  not  nearly  strong 
enough  to  oppose  Hakon,  he  sailed  out  to  the  West 
sea  with  such  men  as  would  follow  him.  He  first 
sailed  to  Orkney,  and  took  many  people  with  him  from 
that  country;  and  then  went  south  towards  England, 
plundering  in  Scotland,  and  in  the  north  parts  of 
England,  wherever  he  could  land.  Athelstan,  the  king 
of  England,  sent  a  message  to  Eric,  offering  him  do- 
minions under  him  in  England ;  saying  that  King 
Harald  his  father  was  a  good  friend  of  King  Athel- 
stan, and  therefore  he  would  do  kindly  towards  his 
sons.  Messengers  passed  between  the  two  kings  ;  and 
it  came  to  an  agreement  that  King  Eric  should  take 
Northumberland  as  a  fief  from  King  Athelstan,  and 
which  land  he  should  defend  against  the  Danes  or 
other  vikings.  Eric  should  let  himself  be  baptized, 
together  with  his  wife  and  children,  and  all  the  people 
who  had  followed  him.  Eric  accepted  this  ofi'er,  and 
was  baptized,  and  adopted  the  right  faith.  Northum- 
berland is  called  a  fifth  part  of  England.  Eric  had 
his  residence  at  York,  where  Lodbrok's  sons,  it  was 
said,  had  formerly  been,  and  Northumberland  was 
principally  inhabited  by  Northmen.  Since  Lodbrok's 
sons  had  taken  the  country,   Danes  and  Northmen 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  317 

often  plundered  there,  when  the  power  of  the  land    saga^iv. 
was  out  of  their  hands.     Many  names  of  places  in  the 
country  are  Norwegian  ;  as  Grimsby  *,  Haukfliot,  and 
many  others. 

King  Eric  had  many  people  about  him,  for  he  kept  Chaiter 
many  Northmen  who  had  come  with  him  from  the  Eric's 
East ;  and  also  many  of  his  friends  had  joined  him  '^^^^^^• 
from  Norway.  But  as  he  had  little  land,  he  went  on 
a  cruise  every  summer,  and  plundered  in  Shetland, 
the  Hebrides,  Iceland,  and  Bretland,  by  which  he 
gathered  property.  King  Athelstan  died  on  a  sick 
bed,  after  a  reign  of  fourteen  years,  eight  weeks,  and 
three  days.f  After  him  his  brother  JatmundJ  was 
king  of  England,  and  he  was  no  friend  to  the  North- 
men. King  Eric,  also,  was  in  no  great  favour  with 
him ;  and  the  word  went  about  that  King  Edmund 
would  set  another  chief  over  Northumberland.  Now 
when  King  Eric  heard  this,  he  set  off  on  a  viking 
cruise  to  the  westward ;  and  from  the  Orkneys  took 
with  him  the  Earls  Arnkel  and  Erlend,  the  sons  of 
Earl  Torf-Einar.  Then  he  sailed  to  the  Hebrides, 
where  there  were  many  vikings  and  troop-kings,  who 
joined  their  men  to  his.  With  all  this  force  he 
steered  to  Ireland  first,  where  he  took  with  him  all 
the  men  he  could,  and  then  to  Bretland,  and  plun- 
dered;  and  sailed  thereafter  south  to  England  §,  and 
marauded  there  as  elsewhere.  The  people  lied  be- 
fore him  wherever  he  appeared.  As  King  Eric  was  a 
bold  warrior,   and  had  a  great  force,  he  trusted  so 

*  Grirasbae  is  no  doubt  Grimsby.  Haukfliot  is  not  now  the  name 
of  any  place  known  generally. 

•j"  According  to  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  Athelstan  died  in  the  year  941, 
after  a  reign  of  fourteen  years  and  ten  weeks.  Florence  of  Whitehorn, 
who  lived  about  the  year  1110,  places  his  death  in  9^0,  after  a  reign  of 
sixteen  years. 

J  Jatmund,  Edmund,  Eadmund,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  —  a 
difference  in  pronunciation  of  the  same  name. 

§  England  is  applied  to  the  parts  occupied  by  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and 
Bretland  to  the  parts  occupied  by  the  Welsh  and  ancient  Britons. 


318 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


sAGA^iv.  niuch  to  his  people  that  he  penetrated  far  inland  in 
the  country,  following  and  plundering  the  fugitives. 
King  Edmund  had  set  a  king,  who  was  called  Olaf,  to 
defend  the  land  ;  and  he  gathered  an  innumerable 
mass  of  people,  with  whom  he  marched  against  King 
Eric.  A  dreadful  battle*  ensued,  in  which  many 
Englishmen  fell ;  but  for  one  who  fell  came  three  in 
his  place  out  of  the  country  behind,  and  when  evening 
came  on  the  loss  of  men  turned  on  the  side  of  the 
Northmen,  and  many  people  fell.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  day.  King  Eric  and  live  kings  with  him  fell. 
Three  of  them  were  Guttorm  and  his  two  sons,  Ivar 
and  Harek :  there  fell,  also,  Sigurd  and  Ragnvald ;  and 
with  them  Torf-Einar's  two  sons,  Arnkel  and  Erlend. 
Besides  these,  there  was  a  great  slaughter  of  North- 
men; and  those  who  escaped  went  to  Northumber- 
land, and  brought  the  news  to  Gunhild  and  her  sons. 
When  Gunhild  and  her  sons  knew  for  certain  that 
King  Eric  had  fallen,  after  having  plundered  the  land 
of  the  King  of  England,  they  thought  there  was  no 
peace  to  be  expected  for  them ;  and  they  made  them- 
selves ready  to  depart  from  Northumberland,  with  all 
the  ships  King  Eric  had  left,  and  all  the  men  who 
would  follow  them.  They  took  also  all  the  loose  pro- 
perty, and  goods  which  they  had  gathered  partly 
as  taxes  in  England,  partly  as  booty  on  their  expe- 
ditions. With  their  army  they  first  steered  north- 
ward to  Orkney,  Avhere  Thorfin  HausakliiFer  was  earl, 
a  son  of  Torf-Einar,  and  took  up  their  station  there 
for  a  time.  Eric's  sons  subdued  these  islands  and 
Shetland,  took  scatt  for  themselves,  and  staid  there 
all  the  winter ;  but  went  on  viking  cruises  in  summer 
to  the  West,  and  plundered  in  Scotland  and  Irelandc 
About  this  Glum  Geirason  sings  :  — 


Chai=ter 
V. 

Gunhild 
and  her 
sons. 


*  This  battle,  according  to  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  took  place  944.     It 
mentions  the  fall  of  a  Regenald  —  Rognvald  —  and  an  Aulaf. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  319 

''  The  hero  who  knows  well  to  ride  saga  iv. 

The  sea-horse*  o'er  the  foaming  tide, — 
He  who  in  boyhood  wild  rode  o'er 
The  seaman's  horse  to  Scania's  shore. 
And  showed  the  Danes  his  galley's  bow, 
Right  nobly  scours  the  ocean  now. 
On  Scotland's  coast  he  lights  the  brand 
Of  flaming  war ;  with  conquering  hand 
Drives  many  a  Scottish  warrior  tall 
To  the  bright  seats  in  Odin's  hall. 
The  fire-spark,  by  the  fiend  of  war 
Fanned  to  a  flame,  soon  spreads  afar. 
Crowds  trembling  fly, — the  southern  foes 
Fall  thick  beneath  the  hero's  blows  : 
The  hero's  blade  drips  red  with  gore. 
Staining  the  green  sward  on  the  shore." 

When  King  Eric  had  left  the  country,  King  Hakon,  Chapter 
Athelstan's  foster-son,  subdued  the  whole  of  Norway.  Battle  iu 
The  first  winter  he  visited  the  western  parts,  and  then  J"^^^"^- 
went  north,  and  settled  in  Drontheim.  But  as  no  peace 
could  be  reasonably  looked  for  so  long  as  King  Eric 
with  his  forces  could  come  to  Norway  from  the  West 
sea,  he  set  himself  with  his  men-at-arms  in  the  middle 
of  the  country, — in  the  Fiorde  district,  or  in  Sogn,  or 
Hordaland,  or  Eogaland.  Hakon  placed  Sigurd  earl 
of  Lade  over  the  whole  Drontheim  district,  as  he  and 
his  father  had  before  had  it  under  Harald  Haarfager. 
When  King  Hakon  heard  of  his  brother  Eric's  death, 
and  also  that  his  sons  had  no  footing  in  England,  he 
thought  there  was  not  much  to  fear  from  them,  and  he 
went  with  his  troops  one  summer  eastward  to  Yiken. 
At  that  time  the  Danes  plundered  often  in  Viken,  and 
wrought  nmch  evil  there ;  but  when  they  heard  that 
King  Hakon  was  come  with  a  great  army,  they  got 
out  of  the  way,  —  some  to  Sealand,  or  to  Halland*  ; 

*  The  sea-horse,  the  ocean  steed,  &c.,  are  common  expressions  for  a 
ship, — probably  from  many  having  had  the  figure-head  of  a  horse  on 
the  bow. 

"j"  Halland  was  part  of  the  present  Sweden.  Denmark  extended 
over  the  provinces  of  Scania,  Halland,  and  Bleiking,  on  the  north  or 
Swedish  side  of  the  Sound,  in  the  earliest  times,  and  down  to  a  late 
period. 


320 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  IV.  and  those  who  were  nearest  to  King  Hakon  went  out 
to  sea,  and  over  to  Jutland.  When  the  king  heard  of 
this,  he  sailed  after  them  with  all  his  army.  On  ar- 
riving at  Jutland  he  plundered  all  round ;  and  when 
the  country  people  heard  of  it,  they  assembled  in  a 
great  body,  and  determined  to  defend  their  land,  and 
fight.  There  was  a  great  battle;  and  King  Hakon 
fought  so  boldly,  that  he  went  forward  before  his 
banner  without  helmet  or  coat  of  mail.  King  Hakon 
won  the  victory,  and  drove  the  fugitives  far  up  the 
country.  So  says  Guttorm  Sindre,  in  his  song  of 
Hakon :  — 

^'  Furrowing  the  deep-blue  sea  with  oars, 
The  king  pursues  to  Jutland's  shores. 
They  met ;  and  in  the  battle  storm 
Of  clashing  shields^  full  many  a  form 
Of  goodly  warrior  on  the  plain. 
Full  many  a  corpse  by  Hakon  slain. 
Glutted  the  ravens,  who  from  far. 
Scenting  the  banquet- feast  of  war. 
Came  in  black  flocks  to  Jutland's  plains 
To  drink  the  blood-wine  from  the  veins." 


Chapter 
VI  I. 
Battle  in 
the  Sound. 


Then  Hakon  steered  southwards  with  his  fleet  to 
seek  the  vikings,  and  so  on  to  Sealand.  He  rowed 
with  two  cutters  into  the  Sound,  where  he  found 
eleven  viking  ships,  and  instantly  attacked  them.  It 
ended  in  his  gaining  the  victory,  and  clearing  the 
viking  ships  of  all  their  men.  So  says  Guttorm 
Sindre :  — 

"  Hakon  the  Brave,  whose  skill  all  know 
To  bend  in  battle  storm  the  bow. 
Rushed  o'er  the  waves  to  Sealand's  tongue. 
His  two  war-ships  with  gilt  shields  hung, 
And  cleared  the  decks  with  his  blue  sword 
That  rules  the  fate  of  war,  on  board 
Eleven  ships  of  the  Vendland  men,  — • 
Famous  is  Hakon's  name  since  then." 


Thereafter  King  Hakon  carried  war  far  and  Avide  in 
Sealand ;  plundering  some,  slaying  others,  takmg  some 


Chapter 

VIII. 

King  Ila- 

peditionin   prlsoucrs  of  War,  taking  ransom  from  others, —  and  all 

Denmark. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  321 

without  opposition.  Then  Hakon  proceeded  along  the  saga  iv. 
coast  of  Scania,  pillaging  every  where,  levying  taxes 
and  ransoms  from  the  country,  and  killing  all  vikings, 
both  Danish  and  Yendish.*  He  then  went  eastwards 
to  the  island  of  Gotland,  marauded  there,  and  took 
great  ransom  from  the  country.  So  says  Guttorm 
Sindre :  — 

"  Hakon,  who  midst  the  battle  shock 
Stands  like  a  firmly-rooted  oak^ 
Subdued  all  Sealand  with  the  sword  ; 
From  Vendland  vikings  the  sea-bord 
Of  Scania  swept ;  and,  with  the  shield 
Of  Odin  cladj  made  Gotland  yield 
A  ransom  of  the  ruddy  gold,  » 

Which  Hakon  to  his  war-men  bold 
Gave  with  free  hand,  who  in  his  feud 
Against  the  arrow-storm  had  stood." 

King  Hakon  returned  back  in  autumn  with  his  army 
and  an  immense  booty ;  and  remained  all  the  winter 
in  Yiken  to  defend  it  against  the  Danes  and  Gotlanders, 
if  they  should  attack  it. 

In  the  same  -winter  King  Tryggve  Olafsson  returned    Chapter 
from  a  viking  cruise  in  the  West   sea,  having  before  of  King 
ravaged  in  Scotland  and  Ireland.     In   spring  King  '^•''^sve. 
Hakon  went  north,  and   set  his  brother's   son.  King 
Tryggve,  over  Yiken  f  to  defend  that  country  against 
enemies.     He  gave  him  also  in  property  all  that  he 
could  reconquer  of  the  country  in  Denmark  J,  which 
the  summer  before  King  Hakon  had  subjected  to  pay- 
ment of  scatt  to  him.     So  says  Guttorm :  — 

"  King  Hakon,  whose  sharp  sword  dyes  red 
The  bright  steel  cap  on  many  a  head. 
Has  set  a  warrior  brave  and  stout 
The  foreign  foeman  to  keep  out, — 

*  Vendland  and  Vender  mean  the  country  and  people  along  the 
Baltic  coast  from  Saxland  and  Holstein  eastwards  ;  and  seems  to  have 
included  Mecklenburg,  Pomerania,  and  Prussia  on  the  Baltic. 

I  Viken,  the  country  north  of  the  Gotha  river,  forming  the  great  bight 
of  the  coast  of  Norway. 

J  Scania,  on  the  Swedish  side  of  the  Sound,  was  called  Denmark,  as 
well  as  the  islands  and  Jutland. 

VOL.  I.  Y 


322 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV. 


To  keep  that  green  land  safe  from  war 

Which  black  Night  bore  to  dwarf  Onar.* 

For  many  a  carle  whose  trade's  to  wield 
The  battle-axe^  and  swing  the  shield^ 
On  the  swan's  ocean-scates"]'  has  come. 
In  white- winged  ships,  across  the  foam, — 
Across  the  sea,  from  far  Ireland, 
To  war  against  the  Norseman's  land." 

Chapter        King  Harald  Gormson  ruled  over  Denmark  at  that 
Of  otn-     time.     He  took  it  much  amiss  that  King  Hakon  had 
hiid's  sons,  made  war  in  his  dominions,  and  the  report  went  that 
he  would  take  revenge ;  but  this  did  not  take  place  so 
soon.     When  Gunhild  and  her  sons  heard  there  was 
enmity  between  Denmark  and  Norway,  they  began  to 
turn  their  course  from  the  West.     They  married  King 
Eric's  daughter,  Ragnhild,  to  Arnfin,  a  son  of  Torfin 
Hausakliffer  ;  and  as  soon  as  Eric's  sons  went  away, 
Thorfin  took   the    earldom    again   over  the  Orkney 
Islands.     Gamle    Ericson  was  somewhat  older  than 
the  other  brothers,  but  still  he  was  not  a  grown  man. 
When  Gunhild  and  her  sons  came  from  the  westward 
to  Denmark,  they  were  well  received  by  King  Harald. 
He  gave  them  great  fiefs  in  his  kingdom,  so  that  they 
could  maintain  themselves  and  their  men  very  well. 
He  also  took  Harald  Ericson  to  be  his  foster-son,  set 
him  on  his  knee  J,  and  thereafter  he  was  brought  up 
at  the  Danish  king's  court.     Some  of  Eric's  sons  went 
out  on  viking  expeditions  as  soon  as  they  were  old 
enough,  and  gathered  property,  ravaging  all  around 
in  the  East  sea.     They  grew  up  quickly  to  be  hand- 
some men,  and  far  beyond  their  years  in  strength  and 
perfection.    Glum  Geirason  tells  of  one  of  them  in  the 
Graafeld  song :  — 


*  The  dwarf  Onar  was  the  husband  of  Night,  and  Earth  was  their 
daughter. 

t   Figurative  expressions  for  ships. 

j  Setting  the  child  on  the  knee  of  the  foster-father  appears  to  have 
been  the  symbol  of  adoption. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  323 

"  Tve  heard  that,  on  the  Eastland  coast,  saga  iv. 

Great  victories  were  won  and  lost. 
The  king,  whose  hand  is  ever  graced 
With  gift  to  scald,  his  banner  placed 
On,  and  still  on ;   while,  midst  the  play 
Of  swords,  sung  sharp  his  good  sword's  sway. 
As  strong  in  arm  as  free  of  gold, 
He  thinn'd  the  ranks  of  warriors  bold." 

Then  Eric's  sons  turned  northwards  with  their 
troops  to  Viken  ;  but  King  Try ggve  kept  troops  on 
foot  with  which  he  met  them,  and  they  had  many  a 
battle,  in  which  the  victory  was  sometimes  on  one 
side,  and  sometimes  on  the  other.  Sometimes  Eric's 
sons  plundered  in  Viken,  and  sometimes  Try  ggve  in 
Sealand  and  Halland. 

As  long  as  Hakon  was  king  in  Norway,  there  was  Chapter 
good  peace  between  the  bonders  and  merchants ;  so  King  Ha- 
that  none  did  harm  either  to  the  life  or  snoods  of  the  ^^n's  dis- 

^  position 

other.  Good  seasons  also  there  were,  both  by  sea  and  and  go- 
land.  King  Hakon  was  of  a  remarkably  cheerful  dis-  ^^'^""^^''*- 
position,  clever  in  words,  and  very  condescending. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  understanding  also,  and  be- 
stowed attention  on  lawgiving.  He  gave  out  the 
Gula  Thing's  laws  on  the  advice  of  Thorlief  the  Wise  ; 
also  the  Froste  Thing's  laws  on  the  advice  of  Earl 
Sigurd,  and  of  other  Drontheim  men  of  wisdom. 
Eidsvold  Thing  laws  were  first  established  in  the 
country  by  Halfdan  the  Black,  the  father  of  Harald 
Haarfager.* 

King  Hakon  kept  Yule  at  Drontheim,  and  Earl  Chapter 
Sigurd  had  made  a  feast  for  him  at  Lade.  The  night  The  birth 
of  the  first  day  of  Yule  the  earl's  wife,  Bererliot,  was  ?i?^^^. 

<J  ^  ^  7  &  7  ^^  Hakon  liie 

brought  to  bed  of  a  boy -child,  which  afterwards  King  Great. 
Hakon  poured  water  over,  and  gave  him  his  own  name. 
The  boy  grew  up,  and  became  in  his  day  a  mighty 

*  Owing  to  the  different  means  of  subsistence  in  so  vast  an  extent  of 
country,  each  of  the  five  great  Law  Things  appears  to  have  had  laws 
suitable  for  its  own  locality;  and  the  District  Things,  with  their  lagman, 
to  have  administered  these  laws. 

Y    2 


324 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV.    and  able  man,  and  was  earl  after  his  father,  who  was 
King  Hakon's  dearest  friend. 

Ey stein,  a  king  of  the  Uplands,  whom  some  called 


Chapter 

xiir. 


the  Bad. 


ofEystein  ^^^  Great,  and  some  the  Bad,  once  on  a  time  made 
war  in  Drontheim*,  and  subdued  Eyna  district  and 
Sparbo  district,  and  set  his  own  son  Onund  over  them ; 
but  the  Drontheim  people  killed  him.  Then  King 
Eystein  made  another  inroad  into  Drontheim,  and 
ravaged  the  land  far  and  wide,  and  subdued  it.  He 
then  offered  the  people  either  his  slave,  who  was  called 
Thorer  Faxe,  or  his  dog,  whose  name  was  Sauer,  to 
be  their  king.  They  preferred  the  dog,  as  they  thought 
they  would  sooner  get  rid  of  him.  Now  the  dog  was, 
by  witchcraft,  gifted  with  three  men's  msdom ;  and 
when  he  barked,  he  spoke  one  word  and  barked  two. 
A  collar  and  chain  of  gold  and  silver  were  made  for 
him,  and  his  courtiers  carried  him  in  their  hands 
when  the  weather  or  ways  were  foul.  A  throne  was 
erected  for  him,  and  he  sat  upon  a  high  place,  as  kings 
are  used  to  sit.  He  dwelt  in  Inderoen,  and  had  his 
mansion  in  a  place  now  called  Saurshoug.  It  is  told 
that  the  occasion  of  his  death  was  that  the  wolves  one 
day  broke  into  his  fold,  and  his  courtiers  stirred  him 
up  to  defend  his  cattle  ;  but  when  he  ran  down  from 
his  mound,  and  attacked  the  wolves,  they  tore  him  to 
pieces.  Many  other  extraordinary  things  were  done 
by  this  King  Eystein  against  the  Drontheim  people, 
and  in  consequence  of  this  persecution  and  trouble, 
many  chiefs  and  people  fled  and  left  their  udal  pro- 
perties. 

Ketil  Jemte,  a  son  of  Earl  Onund  of  Sparbo,  went 
eastward  across  the  mountain  ridge,  and  with  him  a 

*  Drontheim  here,  and  in  all  the  sagas,  means  not  the  present  town 
of  Drontheim,  which  was  not  founded  until  Olaf  Trygvesson's  reign, 
and  is  always  called  Nidaros,  —  that  is,  the  mouth  of  the  river  Nid, — 
and  sometimes,  as  if  contemptuously,  the  Kiopstad,  the  merchant 
town  ;  but  Drontheim  means  the  whole  district  on  each  side  of  the 
Drontheim  fiord,  which  is  120  miles  in  length. 


Chapter 
XIV. 

The  colo- 
nising of 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  325 

great  multitude,  who  took  all  tlieir  farm- stock  and  saga  iv. 
goods  with  them.  They  cleared  the  woods,  and  esta-  Jemteiand 
blished  large  farms,  and  settled  the  country  afterwards  sWi^V 
called  Jemteiand.  Thorer  Helsing,  Ketil's  grandson, 
on  account  of  a  murder,  ran  away  from  Jemteiand, 
and  fled  eastward  through  the  forest,  and  settled 
there.  Many  people  followed ;  and  that  country,  which 
extends  eastward  down  to  the  sea- coast,  was  called 
Helsin gland  ;  and  its  eastern  parts  are  inhabited  by 
Swedes.  Now  when  Harald  Haarfager  took  possession 
of  the  whole  country  many  people  fled  before  him, 
both  people  of  Drontheim  and  of  Numedal  districts ; 
and  thus  new  settlers  came  to  Jemteiand,  and  some 
all  the  way  to  Helsingland.  The  Helsingland  people 
travelled  into  Sweden  for  their  merchandise,  and  thus 
became  altogether  subjects  of  that  country.  The 
Jemteiand  people,  again,  were  in  a  manner  between 
the  two  countries  ;  and  nobody  cared  about  them, 
until  Hakon  entered  into  friendly  intercourse  with 
Jemteiand,  and  made  friends  of  the  more  powerful 
people.  Then  they  resorted  to  him,  and  promised 
him  obedience  and  payment  of  taxes,  and  became  his 
subjects;  for  they  saw  nothing  but  what  was  good  in 
him,  and  being  of  Norwegian  race  they  would  rather 
stand  under  his  royal  authority  than  under  the  king 
of  Sweden :  and  he  gave  them  laws,  and  rights  to  their 
land.  All  the  people  of  Helsingland  did  the  same,  — 
that  is,  all  who  were  of  Norwegian  race,  from  the  other 
side  of  the  great  mountain  ridge. 

King  Hakon  was  a  good  Christian  when  he  came  to     Chapter 
Norway ;  but  as  the  whole  country  was  heathen,  with   King  lia- 
much  heathenish  sacrifice,  and  as  many  great  people,  ^on  up- 
as well  as  the  favour  of  the  common  people,  were  to  spreads 
be  conciliated,  he  resolved  to  practise  his  Christian  ty  t^anltv 
in  private.     But  he  kept  Sundays,  and  the  Friday 
fasts,  and  some  token  of  the  greatest  holydays.     He 
made  a  law  that  the  festival  of  Yule  should  begin  at 

Y  3 


326 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  IV. 


Chapter 
XVI. 
About 
sacrifices. 


the  same  time  as  Christian  people  held  it,  and  that 
every  man,  under  penalty,  should  brew  a  meal*  of  malt 
into  ale,  and  therewith  keep  the  Yule  holy  as  long  as 
it  lasted.  Before  him,  the  beginning  of  Yule,  or  the 
slaughter  night  f,  was  the  night  of  mid- winter,  and 
Yule  was  kept  for  three  days  thereafter.  It  was 
his  intent,  as  soon  as  he  had  set  himself  fast  in  the 
land,  and  had  subjected  the  whole  to  his  power,  to 
introduce  Christianity.  He  went  to  work  first  by 
enticing  to  Christianity  the  men  who  were  dearest  to 
him ;  and  many,  out  of  friendship  to  him,  allowed 
themselves  to  be  baptized,  and  some  laid  aside  sacri- 
fices. He  dwelt  long  in  the  Drontheim  district,  for 
the  strength  of  the  country  lay  there ;  and  when  he 
thought  that,  by  the  support  of  some  powerful  people 
there,  he  could  set  up  Christianity,  he  sent  a  message 
to  England  for  a  bishop  and  other  teachers  ;  and  when 
they  arrived  in  Norway,  Hakon  made  it  known  that 
he  would  proclaim  Christianity  over  all  the  land.  The 
people  of  More  and  Raumsdal  referred  the  matter  to 
the  people  of  Drontheim.  King  Hakon  then  had 
several  churches  consecrated,  and  put  priests  into 
them ;  and  when  he  came  to  Drontheim  he  summoned 
the  bonders  to  a  Thing,  and  invited  them  to  accept 
Christianity.  They  gave  an  answer  to  the  efi*ect  that 
they  would  defer  the  matter  until  the  Froste  Thing, 
at  which  there  would  be  men  from  every  district  of 
the  Drontheim  country,  and  then  they  would  give 
their  determination  upon  this  difiS.cult  matter. 

Sigurd,  earl  of  Lade,  was  one  of  the  greatest  men 
for  sacrifices,  and  so  had  Hakon  his  father  been ;  and 
Sigurd  always  presided  on  account  of  the  king  at  all 

*  A  maling,  or  meal,  is  a  measure  of  grain  still  used  in  Orkney. 

t  Hoggn  nott,  or  mid- winter  night,  at  which  the  Yule  of  Odin  wor- 
shippers began,  is  supposed  by  Olavius  to  have  taken  its  name  from  the 
slaughtering,  hogging,  or  hewing  down  cattle  on  that  night  for  the 
festival.  Hogmaney  night  is  still  the  name  in  Edinburgh  for  the  first 
night  of  Yule  among  the  common  people. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  327 

the  festivals  of  sacrifice  in  the  Drontheim  country,  saga  iv. 
It  was  an  old  custom,  that  when  there  was  to  be  sa- 
crifice all  the  bonders  should  come  to  the  spot  where 
the  temple  stood,  and  bring  with  them  all  that  they 
required  while  the  festival  of  the  sacrifice  lasted.  To 
this  festival  all  the  men  brought  ale  with  them  ;  and 
all  kinds  of  cattle,  as  well  as  horses,  were  slaughtered, 
and  all  the  blood  that  came  from  them  was  called 
laut^  and  the  vessels  in  which  it  was  collected  were 
called  laut-vessels.  Laut-staves  were  made,  like 
sprinkling  brushes,  with  which  the  whole  of  the 
altars  and  the  temple  walls,  both  outside  and  inside, 
were  sprinkled  over,  and  also  the  people  were  sprin- 
kled with  the  blood  ;  but  the  flesh  was  boiled  into  sa- 
voury meat  for  those  present.  The  fire  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor  of  the  temple,  and  over  it  hung 
the  kettles,  and  the  full  goblets  were  handed  across  the 
fire;  and  he  who  made  the  feast,  and  was  a  chief, 
blessed  the  full  goblets,  and  all  the  meat  of  the  sa- 
crifice. And  first  Odin's  goblet  was  emptied  for  victory 
and  power  to  his  king  ;  thereafter,  Niord's  and  Freya's 
goblets  for  peace  and  a  good  season.  Then  it  was 
the  custom  of  many  to  empty  the  braga-goblet  * ;  and 
then  the  guests  emptied  a  goblet  to  the  memory  of 
departed  friends,  called  the  remembrance-goblet. 
Sigurd  the  earl  was  an  open-handed  man,  who  did 
what  was  very  much  celebrated ;  namely,  he  made  a 
great  sacrifice  festival  at  Lade,  of  which  he  paid  all 
the  expenses.  Kormak  Ogmundson  sings  of  it  in  his 
ballad  of  Sigurd :  — 

"  Of  cup  or  platter  need  has  none 

The  guest  who  seeks  the  generous  one_,  — 
Sigurd  the  Generous,  who  can  trace 
His  lineage  from  the  giant  race ; 
For  Sigurd's  hand  is  bounteous,  free,  — 
The  guardian  of  the  temples  he. 


*  The  braga-goblet,  over  which  vows  were  made. 
Y    4 


328 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV. 


He  loves  the  gods, — his  liberal  hand 
Scatters  his  sword's  gains  o'er  the  land." 

^xvn''  King  Hakon  came  to  the  Froste  Thing,  at  which  a 
The  Thing  vast  multitudc  of  people  were  assembled.  And  when 
at  roste.  ^-^^  Thing  was  seated,  the  king  spoke  to  the  people, 
and  began  his  speech  with  saying,  — it  was  his  mes- 
sage and  entreaty  to  the  bonders  and  householding 
men,  both  great  and  small,  and  to  the  whole  public 
in  general,  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  women  as 
well  as  men,  that  they  should  all  allow  themselves  to 
be  baptized,  and  should  believe  in  one  God,  and  in 
Christ  the  son  of  Mary ;  and  refrain  from  all  sacrifices 
and  heathen  gods ;  and  should  keep  holy  the  seventh 
day,  and  abstain  from  all  work  on  it,  and  keep  a  fast 
on  the  seventh  day.  As  soon  as  the  king  had  pro- 
posed this  to  the  bonders,  great  was  the  murmur  and 
noise  among  the  crowd.  They  complained  that  the 
king  wanted  to  take  their  labour  and  their  old  faith 
from  them,  and  the  land  could  not  be  cultivated  in 
that  way.  The  labouring  men  and  slaves  thought 
that  they  could  not  work  if  they  did  not  get  meat ; 
and  they  said  it  Avas  the  character  of  King  Hakon, 
and  his  father,  and  all  the  family,  to  be  generous 
enough  with  their  money,  but  sparing  with  their  diet. 
Asbiorn  of  Midalhouse  in  the  Gaulardal  stood  up, 
and  answered  thus  to  the  king's  proposal :  — 

"  We  bonders.  King  Hakon,  when  we  elected  thee 
to  be  our  king,  and  got  back  our  udal  rights  at  the 
Thing  held  in  Drontheim,  thought  we  had  got  into 
heaven ;  but  now  we  don't  know  whether  we  have 
really  got  back  our  freedom,  or  whether  thou  wishest 
to  make  vassals  of  us  again  by  this  extraordinary 
proposal  —  that  we  should  abandon  the  ancient  faith 
which  our  fathers  and  forefathers  have  held  from  the 
oldest  times,  in  the  times  when  the  dead  were  burnt, 
as  well  as  since  that  they  are  laid  under  mounds,  and 
which,  although  they  were  braver  than  the  people  of 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  329 

our  days,  has  served  us  as  a  faith  to  the  present  time,  saga  iv. 
We  have  also  held  thee  so  dear,  that  we  have  allowed 
thee  to  rule  and  give  law  and  right  to  all  the  country. 
And  even  now  we  bonders  will  unanimously  hold  by 
the  law  which  thou  givest  us  here  in  the  Froste 
Thing,  and  to  which  we  have  also  given  our  assent*; 
and  we  will  follow  thee,  and  have  thee  for  our  king,  as 
long  as  there  is  a  living  man  among  us  bonders  here 
in  this  Thing  assembled.  But  thou,  king,  must  use 
some  moderation  towards  us,  and  only  require  from 
us  such  things  as  we  can  obey  thee  in,  and  are  not 
impossible  for  us.  If,  however,  thou  wilt  take  up 
this  matter  with  a  high  hand,  and  wilt  try  thy  power 
and  strength  against  us,  we  bonders  have  resolved 
among  ourselves  to  part  with  thee,  and  to  take  to  our- 
selves some  other  chief,  who  will  so  conduct  himself 
towards  us  that  we  can  freely  and  safely  enjoy  that 
faith  that  suits  our  own  inclinations.  Now,  king, 
thou  must  choose  one  or  other  of  these  conditions 
before  the  Thing  is  ended." 

The  bonders  gave  loud  applause  to  this  speech, 
and  said  it  expressed  their  will,  and  they  would 
stand  or  fall  by  what  had  been  spoken.  When 
silence  was  again  restored,  Earl  Sigurd  said,  "  It 
is  King  Hakon's  will  to  give  way  to  you,  the  bon- 
ders, and  never  to  separate  himself  from  your  friend- 
ship." The  bonders  replied,  that  it  was  their  desire 
that  the  king  should  offer  a  sacrifice  for  peace  and 
a  good  year,  as  his  father  was  wont  to  do ;  and  there- 
upon the  noise  and  tumult  ceased,  and  the  Thing 
was  concluded.  Earl  Sigurd  spoke  to  the  king  after- 
wards, and  advised  him  not  to  refuse  altogether 
to  do  as  the  people  desired,  saying  there  was  nothing 
else  for  it  but  to  give  way  to  the  will  of  the  bonders ; 
"  for  it  is,  as  thou  hast  heard  thyself,  the  will  and  earnest 

*  Our  yea.  The  assent  of  the  people  in  old  times  to  the  laws  and 
the  power  of  the  Froste  Thing,  are  as  well  defined  as  in  our  Parliament 
in  this  speech. 


330  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  desire  of  the  liead-people,  as  well  as  of  the  multitude. 
Hereafter  we  may  find  a  good  way  to  manage  it.''  And 
in  this  resolution  the  king  and  earl  agreed. 
Chapter  j]^^  harvest  thereafter,  towards  the  \vinter  season, 
The  pea-  there  was  a  festival  of  sacrifice  at  Lade,  and  the  king 
mnt  Ha-  came  to  it.  It  had  always  been  his  custom  before, 
^^'^•'fi  ^^^^  when  he  was  present  at  a  place  where  there  was  sa- 
crifice, to  take  his  meals  in  a  little  house  by  himself, 
or  with  some  few  of  his  men  ;  but  the  bonders  grum- 
bled that  he  did  not  seat  himself  on  his  throne  at 
these  the  most  joyous  of  the  meetings  of  the  people. 
The  earl  said  that  the  king  should  do  so  this  time.  The 
king  accordingly  sat  upon  his  throne.  Now  when  the 
first  full  goblet  was  filled.  Earl  Sigurd  spoke  some 
words  over  it,  blessed  it  in  Odin's  name,  and  drank 
to  the  king  out  of  the  horn ;  and  the  king  then  took 
it,  and  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  it.  Then  said 
Kaare  of  Gryting,  "  What  does  the  king  mean  by 
doing  so  ?  Will  he  not  sacrifice  ? "  Earl  Sigurd 
replies,  "  The  king  is  doing  what  all  of  you  do,  who 
trust  to  your  power  and  strength.  He  is  blessing  the 
full  goblet  in  the  name  of  Thor,  by  making  the  sign 
of  his  hammer  over  it  before  he  drinks  it."  On  this 
there  was  quietness  for  the  evening.  The  next  day, 
when  the  people  sat  down  to  table,  the  bonders  pressed 
the  king  strongly  to  eat  of  horse-flesh*;  and  as  he 
would  on  no  account  do  so,  they  wanted  him  to  drink 
of  the  soup  ;  and  as  he  would  not  do  this,  they  insisted 
he  should  at  least  taste  the  gravy ;  and  on  his  refusal 
they  were  going  to  lay  hands  on  him.     Earl  Sigurd 

*  This  eating  of  horse-flesh  at  these  religious  festivals  was  consi- 
dered the  most  direct  proof  of  paganism  in  the  following  times,  and 
was  punished  by  death  or  mutilation  by  Saint  Olaf.  It  was  a  ceremony 
apparently  commemorative  of  their  Asiatic  origin  and  ancestors.  In  Nor- 
way,, or  in  Iceland,  where  horse-flesh  also  was  eaten  at  these  pagan  festivals, 
the  horse  is  not  an  animal  that  could  ever  have  been  in  common  use 
for  food,  as  in  the  plains  of  Asia  ;  because  it  cannot,  as  in  Asia,  be 
easily  reared  and  subsisted.  This  is  perhaps  the  strongest  proof  of  the 
truth  of  the  saga  tradition  of  Odin  having  come  into  Scandinavia  from 
the  banks  of  the  Don  —  the  Tanais. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  331 

came  and  made  peace  among  them,  by  asking  the  saga  i v. 
king  to  hold  his  mouth  over  the  handle  of  the  kettle, 
upon  which  the  fat  smoke  of  the  boiled  horse-flesh  had 
settled  itself;  and  the  king  first  laid  a  linen  cloth  over 
the  handle,  and  then  gaped  over  it,  and  returned  to 
the  throne  ;  but  neither  party  was  satisfied  with  this. 

The  winter  thereafter  the  king  prepared  a  Yule  Chapter 
feast  in  More,  and  eight  chiefs  resolved  with  each  Feast  of  the 
other  to  meet  at  it.  Four  of  them  were  from  without  sacrifice  at 
the  Drontheim  district  —  namely,  Kaare  of  Gryting, 
Asbiorn  of  Midalhouse,  Thorberg  of  Yarnses,  and 
Orm  from  Lyra ;  and  from  the  Drontheim  district, 
Blotolf  of  Olvishoug,  Narfe  of  Staf  in  Yserdal, 
Thrand  Hake  from  Egge,  and  Thorer  Skeg  from  Hu- 
saboe  in  Inderoen.  These  eight  men  bound  them- 
selves, the  four  first  to  root  out  Christian ty  in  Nor- 
way, and  the  four  others  to  oblige  the  king  to  offer 
sacrifice  to  the  gods.  The  four  first  went  in  four 
ships  southwards  to  More,  and  killed  three  priests, 
and  burnt  three  churches,  and  then  they  returned. 
Now,  when  King  Hakon  and  Earl  Sigurd  came  to 
More  with  their  court,  the  bonders  assembled  in 
great  numbers  ;  and  immediately,  on  the  first  day  of 
the  feast,  the  bonders  insisted  hard  with  the  king 
that  he  should  offer  sacrifice,  and  threatened  him 
with  violence  if  he  refused.  Earl  Sigurd  tried  to 
make  peace  between  them,  and  brought  it  so  far  that 
the  king  took  some  bits  of  horse-liver,  and  emptied 
all  the  goblets  the  bonders  filled  for  him;  but  as 
soon  as  the  feast  was  over,  the  king  and  the  earl  re- 
turned to  Lade.  The  king  was  very  ill  pleased,  and 
made  himself  ready  to  leave  Drontheim  forthwith 
with  all  his  people;  saying  that  the  next  time  he 
came  to  Drontheim,  he  would  come  with  such  strength 
of  men-at-arms  that  he  would  repay  the  bonders  for 
their  enmity  towards  him.  Earl  Sigurd  entreated  the 
king  not  to  take  it  amiss  of  the  bonders ;  adding,  that 


Augvalds 
ness. 


332  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  it  was  not  wise  to  threaten  them,  or  to  make  war 
upon  the  people  within  the  country,  and  especially 
in  the  Drontheim  district  where  the  strength  of  the 
land  lay ;  but  the  king  was  so  enraged  that  he  would 
not  listen  to  a  word  from  any  body.  He  went  out 
from  Drontheim,  and  proceeded  south  to  More  where 
he  remained  the  rest  of  the  winter,  and  on  to  the 
spring  season  ;  and  when  summer  came  he  assembled 
men,  and  the  report  was  that  he  intended  with  this 
army  to  attack  the  Drontheim  people. 

Chapter         j^^^  j^g^  ^^  ^]^g  Mug  had  cmbarkcd  with  a  great 

Battle  at  forcc  of  troops,  the  news  was  brought  him  from  the 
south  of  the  country,  that  King  Eric's  sons  had 
come  from  Denmark  to  Yiken,  and  had  driven  King 
Tryggve  Olafsson  from  his  ships  at  Sotanaess,  and 
then  had  plundered  far  and  wide  around  in  Yiken, 
and  that  many  had  submitted  to  them.  Now  when 
King  Hakon  heard  this  news,  he  thought  that  help 
was  needed ;  and  he  sent  word  to  Earl  Sigurd,  and  to 
the  other  chiefs  from  whom  he  could  expect  help,  to 
hasten  to  his  assistance.  Sigurd  the  earl  came  ac- 
cordingly with  a  great  body  of  men,  among  whom 
were  all  the  Drontheim  people  who  had  set  upon  him 
the  hardest  to  offer  sacrifice  ;  and  all  made  their  peace 
with  the  king,  by  the  earl's  persuasion.  Now  King 
Hakon  sailed  south  along  the  coast ;  and  when  he 
came  south  as  far  as  Stad,  he  heard  that  Eric's  sons 
were  come  to  North  Agder.  Then  they  advanced 
against  each  other,  and  met  at  Kormt.  Both  parties 
left  their  ships  there,  and  gave  battle  at  Augvalds- 
ness.  Both  parties  had  a  great  force,  and  it  was  a 
great  battle.  King  Hakon  went  forwards  bravely, 
and  King  Guttorm  Ericson  met  him  with  his 
troop,  and  they  exchanged  blows  with  each  other. 
Guttorm  fell,  and  his  standard  was  cut  down.  Many 
people  fell  around  him.  The  army  of  Eric's  sons 
then   took   flight   to   their  ships,   and    rowed    away 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  333 

with   the   loss  of  many  a   man.     So  says  Guttorm    saga  iv. 
Sindre :  — 

"  The  king's  voice  waked  the  silent  host 
Who  slept  beside  the  wild  sea-coast, 
And  bade  the  song  of  spear  and  sword 
Over  the  battle  plain  be  heard. 
Where  heroes'  shields  the  loudest  rang. 
Where  loudest  was  the  sword-blade's  clang. 
By  the  sea-shore  at  Kormt  Sound, 
Hakon  felled  Guttorm  to  the  ground." 

Now  King  Hakon  returned  to  his  ships,  and  pur- 
sued Gunhild's  sons.*  And  both  parties  sailed  all 
they  could  sail,  until  they  came  to  Easter  Agderf, 
from  whence  Eric's  sons  set  out  to  sea,  and  south- 
wards for  Jutland.  Guttorm  Sindre  speaks  of  it  in 
his  song:  — 

"  And  Guttorm's  brothers  too,  who  know 
So  skilfully  to  bend  the  bow. 
The  conquering  hand  must  also  feel 
Of  Hakon,  god  of  the  bright  steel, — 
The  sun-god,  whose  bright  rays,  that  dart 
Flame-like,  are  swords  that  pierce  the  heart. 
Well  I  remember  how  the  King 
Hakon,  the  battle's  life  and  spring. 
O'er  the  wide  ocean  cleared  away 
Eric's  brave  sons.     They  durst  not  stay. 
But  round  their  ships'  sides  hung  their  shields. 
And  fled  across  the  blue  sea-fields." 

King  Hakon  returned  then  northwards  to  Norway, 
but  Eric's  sons  remained  a  long  time  in  Denmark. 

Kine:  Hakon  after  this  battle  made  a  law,  that  all    Chapter 

XXI 

inhabited  land  over  the  whole  country  along  the  sea-  King  Ha- 
coast,  and  as  far  back  from  it  as  the  salmon  swims  up  ^^"'^  ^^^^ 
in  the  rivers,  should  be  divided  into  ship-raths  ac- 
cording to  the  districts ;  and  it  was  fixed  by  law  how 
many  ships  there  should  be  from  each  district,  and 
how  great  each  should  be,  when  the  whole  people 
were  called  out  on  service.     For  this  outfit  the  whole 

*  Eric's  sons  are  often  called  Gunhild's  sons,  from  their  mother, 
■j"  Easter  Agder  appears  to  have  been  the  district  up  to  Christian- 
sand  ;  and  West  or  North  Agder  from  thence  to  about  Flikkefiord. 


334  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  inhabitants  should  be  bound,  whenever  a  foreign 
army  came  to  the  country.  With  this  came  also  the 
order  that  beacons  should  be  erected  upon  the  hills, 
so  that  every  man  could  see  from  the  one  to  the 
other ;  and  it  is  told  that  a  war-signal  could  thus  be 
given  in  seven  days,  from  the  most  southerly  beacon 
to  the  most  northerly  Thing-seat  in  Halogaland. 
Chapter  Eric's  SOUS  pluudcrcd  much  ou  the  Baltic  coasts, 
Co^^rnin^  aud  somctlmcs,  as  before  related,  in  Norway ;  but  so 
Eric's  sons,  long  as  Hakou  ruled  over  Norway  there  was  in  ge- 
neral good  peace,  and  good  seasons,  and  he  was  the 
most  beloved  of  kings.  When  Hakon  had  reigned 
about  twenty  years  in  Norway,  Eric's  sons  came  from 
Denmark  with  a  powerful  army,  of  which  a  great 
part  consisted  of  the  people  who  had  followed  them  on 
their  expeditions  ;  but  a  still  greater  army  of  Danes 
had  been  placed  at  their  disposal  by  King  Harald 
Gormson.  They  sailed  with  a  fair  wind  from  Vinde- 
syssel  *,  and  came  to  Agder ;  and  then  sailed  north- 
wards, night  and  day,  along  the  coast.  But  the 
beacons  were  not  fired,  because  it  had  been  usual  to 
look  for  them  lighted  from  the  east  onwards,  and 
nobody  had  observed  them  from  the  east  coast ;  and 
besides  King  Hakon  had  set  heavy  penalties  for  giving 
false  alarm,  by  lighting  the  beacons  without  occasion. 
^  The  reason  of  this  was,  that  ships  of  Avar  and  vikings 
cruised  about  and  plundered  among  the  outlying 
islands,  and  the  country  people  took  them  for  Eric's 
sons,  and  lighted  the  beacons,  and  set  the  whole 
country  in  trouble  and  dread  of  war.  Sometimes,  no 
doubt,  the  sons  of  Eric  were  there ;  but  having  only 
their  own  troop,  and  no  Danish  army  with  them, 
they  returned  to  Denmark ;  and  sometimes  these  were 
only  small  vikings.  King  Hakon  was  very  angry  at 
this,  because  it  cost  both  trouble  and  money  to  no 

*  The  end  of  Jutland,  to  the  north  of  Lymfiord. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  335 

purpose.  The  bonders  also  suffered  by  these  false  saga  iv. 
alarms  when  they  were  given  uselessly ;  and  thus  it 
happened  that  no  news  of  this  expedition  of  Eric's 
sons  circulated  through  the  land  until  they  had 
come  as  far  north  as  Ulvesound,  where  they  lay  for 
seven  days.  Then  spies  set  oif  across  the  upper  neck 
of  land  and  northwards  to  More.  King  Hakon  was 
at  that  time  in  the  island  Frasde,  in  North  More,  at  a 
place  called  Birkestrand,  where  he  had  a  dwelling- 
house,  and  had  no  troops  with  him,  only  his  body- 
guard or  court,  and  the  neighbouring  bonders  he  had 
invited  to  his  house. 

The  spies  came  to  King  Hakon,  and  told  him  that    Chapter 
Eric's  sons,  with  a  great  army,  lay  just  to  the  south  q^  ^„-^i  ' 
of   Stad.     Then  he  called  together  the  most  under-  uiisa^rk. 
standing  of  the  men    about   him,    and    asked   their 
opinion,   whether  he  should  fight  with  Eric's  sons, 
although  they  had  such  a  great  multitude  with  them, 
or  should  set  off  northwards  to  gather  together  more 
men.     Now  there  was  a  bonder  there,   by  name  Egil 
Ullsa3rk,  who  was  a  very  old  man,  but  in  former  days 
had  been  strong  and  stout  beyond  most  men,  and  a 
hardy  man-at-arms  withal,  having  long  carried  King 
Harald's  banner.     Egil  answered  thus  to  the  king's 
speech,  — "  I  was  in  several  battles  with  thy  father 
Harald  the  king,  and  he  gave  battle  sometimes  with 
many,   sometimes  with  few  people ;    but  he  always 
came  off  mth  victory.     Never  did  I  hear  him  ask 
counsel  of  his  friends  whether  he  should  fly,  —  and 
neither    shalt   thou    get   any  such  counsel  from  us, 
king ;  but  as  we  know  we  have  a  brave  leader,  thou 
shalt  get  a  trusty  following  from  us."     Many  others 
agreed  with  this  speech,  and  the  king  himself  declared 
he  was  most  inclined  to  fight  with  such  strength  as 
they  could  gather.     It  was  so  determined.     The  king 
split  up  a  war-arrow,  which  he  sent  off  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  by  that  token  a  immber  of  men  was  col- 


336 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV. 


Chapter 
XXIV. 
Battle  at 
Freedar- 
berg. 


lected  in  all  haste.  Then  said  Egil  Ullsaerk,  —  ''At 
one  time  the  peace  had  lasted  so  long  I  was  afraid  I 
might  come  to  die  the  death  of  old  age  *,  within  doors 
upon  a  bed  of  straw,  although  I  would  rather  fall  in 
battle  following  my  chief.  And  now  it  may  so  turn 
out  in  the  end  as  I  wished  it  to  be.'' 

Eric's  sons  sailed  northwards  around  Stad,  as  soon 
as  the  wind  suited ;  and  when  they  had  passed  it, 
and  heard  where  King  Hakon  was,  they  sailed  to  meet 
him.     King  Hakon  had  nine  ships,  with  which  he 
lay  under  Fraedarberg  in  Freyarsund ;  and  Eric's  sons 
had  twenty  ships,  with  which  they  brought  up  on  the 
south  side  of  the  same  cape,  in  Freyar  Sound.     King 
Hakon  sent  them  a  message,  asking  them  to  go  upon 
the  land ;  and  telling  them  that  he  had  hedged  in  with 
hazel  boughs  a  place  of  combat  at  Rastarkalf,  where 
there  is  a  flat  large  field,  at  the  foot  of  a  long  and 
rather  low  ridge.     Then  Eric's  sons  left  their  ships, 
and  went   northwards  over  the  neck  of  land  within 
Frsedarberg,  and  onward  to  Rastarkalf.     Then  Egil 
asked  King  Hakon  to  give  him  ten  men  with  ten 
banners,  and  the  king  did  so.     Then  Egil  went  with 
his  men  under  the  ridge ;  but  King  Hakon  went  out 
upon  the  open  field  with  his  army,  and  set  up  his 
banner,  and  drew  up  his  army,  saying,   "  Let  us  draw 
up  in  a  long  line,  that  they  may  not  surround  us,  as 
they  have  the  most  men."     And  so  it  was  done  ;  and 
there  was  a  severe  battle,  and  a  very  sharp  attack. 
Then  Egil  Ullsserk  set  up  the  ten  banners  he  had  with 
him,  and  placed  the  men  who  carried  them  so  that 
they  should  go  as  near  the  summit  of  the  ridge  as 
possible,  and  leaving  a  space  between  each  of  them. 
They  went  so  near  the  summit  that  the  banners  could 
be  seen  over  it,  and  moved  on  as  if  they  were  coming 
behind  the  army  of  Eric's  sons.     Now  when  the  men 

*   In  all  the  sagas  of  this  pagan  time,  the  dying  on  a  bed  of  sickness 
is  mentioned  as  a  kind  of  derogatory  end  of  a  man  of  any  celebrity. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  337 

who  stood  uppermost  in  the  Une  of  the  troo]3S  of  saga  iv. 
Eric's  sons  saw  so  many  flying  banners  advancing 
high  over  the  edge  of  the  ridge,  they  supposed  a  great 
force  must  be  following,  who  would  come  behind  their 
army,  and  between  them  and  their  ships.  They  made 
each  other  acquainted  with  what  was  going  on  in  a 
loud  shout,  and  the  whole  took  to  flight ;  and  when 
the  kings  saw  it,  they  t^ed  with  the  rest.  King  Hakon 
now  pushes  on  briskly  with  his  people,  pursuing  the 
flying,  and  killing  many. 

When  Gamle  Ericsson  came  up  the  rido;e  of  the    Chavi^r 

V  V  T7 

hill  he  turned  round,  and  he  observed  that  not  more  of  King 
people  were  foUowine;  than  his  men  had  been  ene^as^ed  Gamie,  the 

J-        i-  O  o    o  son  of  Eric. 

with  already,  and  he  saw  it  was  but  a  stratagem  of 
war ;  so  he  ordered  the  war-horns  to  be  blown,  his 
banner  to  be  set  up,  and  he  put  his  men  in  battle 
order.  On  this,  all  his  Northmen  stood,  and  turned 
with  him,  but  the  Danes  fled  to  the  ships ;  and  when 
King  Hakon  and  his  men  came  thither,  there  was 
again  a  sharp  conflict ;  but  now  Hakon  had  most 
people.  At  last  the  Eric's  sons'  force  fled,  and  took 
the  road  south  about  the  hill ;  but  a  part  of  their  army 
retreated  upon  the  hill  southwards,  followed  by  King 
Hakon.  There  is  a  flat  field  east  of  the  ridge  which 
runs  westward  along  the  range  of  hills,  and  is  bounded 
on  its  west  side  by  a  steep  ridge.  Gamle' s  men  re- 
treated towards  this  ground;  but  Hakon  followed  so 
closely  that  he  killed  some,  and  others  ran  west  over 
the  ridge,  and  were  killed  on  that  side  of  it.  King 
Hakon  did  not  part  with  them  till  the  last  man  of 
them  Avas  killed. 

Gamle   Ericsson    fled  from  the  ridge   down   upon    Chaiter 
the  plain  to  the  south  of  the  hill.     There  he  turned  King 
himself  again,  and  waited  until  more  people  gathered  Gamie  and 
to  him.     All  his  brothers,  and  many  troops  of  their  fail, 
men,  assembled  there.     Egil  Ullsaerk  was  in  front, 
and  in  advance  of  Hakon's  men,  and  made  a  stout 

VOL.  I.  z 


338 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  IV.  attack.  He  and  King  Gamle  exchanged  blows  with 
each  other,  and  King  Gamle  got  a  grievous  wound  ; 
but  Egil  fell,  and  many  people  with  him.  Then  came 
Hakon  the  king  with  the  troops  which  had  followed 
him,  and  a  new  battle  began.  King  Hakon  pushed 
on,  cutting  down  men  on  both  sides  of  him,  and  kill- 
ing the  one  upon  the  top  of  the  other.  So  sings 
Guttorm  Sindre :  — 

''  Scared  by  the  sharp  swords'  singing  sound. 
Brandished  in  air,  the  foe  gave  ground. 
The  boldest  warrior  cannot  stand 
Before  King  Hakon' s  conquering  hand  ; 
And  the  king's  banner  ever  flies 
Where  the  spear-forests  thickest  rise. 
Altho'  the  king  had  gained  of  old 
Enough  of  Freya's  tears  of  gold,* 
He  spared  himself  no  more  than  tho' 
He'd  had  no  well-filled  purse  to  show.""!" 

When  Eric's  sons  saw  their  men  falling  all  round, 
they  turned  and  fled  to  their  ships ;  but  those  who 
had  sought  the  ships  before  had  pushed  ofi^  some  of 
them  from  the  land,  while  some  of  them  were  still 
hauled  up  and  on  the  strand.  Now  the  sons  of  Eric 
and  their  men  plunged  into  the  sea,  and  betook  them- 
selves to  swimming.  Gamle  Ericsson  was  drowned  ; 
but  the  other  sons  of  Eric  reached  their  ships,  and  set 
sail  with  what  men  remained.  They  steered  south- 
wards to  Denmark,  where  they  stopped  a  while,  very 
ill  satisfied  with  their  expedition. 

King  Hakon  took  all  the  ships  of  the  sons  of  Eric 
that  had  been  left  upon  the  strand,  and  had  them 
drawn  quite  up,  and  brought  on  the  land.     Then  he 


Chapter 
XXVIT. 

Egil 

Ulls^rk's 
burial- 
ground. 


*  Freya's  husband  was  Odd;  and  her  tears,  when  she  wept  at  the 
long  absence  of  her  husband,  were  tears  of  gold.  Odd's  wife's  tears 
is  the  scald's  expression  here  for  gold — understood,  no  doubt,  as  readily 
as  any  allusion  to  Plutus  would  convey  the  equivalent  meaning  in 
modern  poetry. 

■]•  Wealth,  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  appears  then  to  have  been  the 
stimulus  to  enterprise,  as  much  as  in  our  times;  and  wealth  gained,  and 
liberally  used,  the  great  subject  of  the  scalds'  praises. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


339 


ordered  that  Egil  Ullsa3rk,  and  all  the  men  of  his  saga  iv. 
army  who  had  fallen,  should  be  laid  in  the  ships, 
and  covered  entirely  over  with  earth  and  stones. 
King  Hakon  made  many  of  the  ships  to  be  drawn  up 
to  the  field  of  battle,  and  the  hillocks  over  them  are 
to  be  seen  to  the  present  day  a  little  to  the  south 
of  Freydarberg.  At  the  time  when  King  Hakon  was 
killed,  when  Glum  Geirason,  in  his  song,  boasted  of 
King  Hakon's  fall,  Eyvind  Skaldaspiller  composed 
these  verses  on  this  battle :  — 

"  Our  dauntless  king  with  Gamle's  gore 
Sprinkled  his  bright  sword  o'er  and  o'er; 
Sprinkled  the  gag  that  holds  the  mouth 
Of  the  fell  demon  Fenri's  wolf.* 
Proud  swelled  our  warriors'  hearts  when  he 
Drove  Eric's  sons  out  to  the  sea^ 
With  all  their  Gotland  host :  but  now 
Our  warriors  weep — Hakon  lies  low  !" 

High  standing  stones  f  mark  Egil  Ullsgerk's  grave. 

When  King  Hakon,  Athelstan's  foster-son,  had  been    Chapter 
king  for  twenty-six  years  after  his  brother  Eric  had  ^ews  of 
left  the  country,  it  happened  that  he  was  at  a  feast  in  war  comes 
the  house  of  Fitiar  at  Stord,  and  he  had  with  him  at  Hakon? ' 
the  feast  his  court  and  many  of  the  peasants.     And 
just  as  the  king  was  seated  at  the  supper-table,  his 
watchmen  who  were    outside    observed   many  ships 
coming  sailing  along  from  the  south,  and  not  very  far 
from  the  island.    Now,  said  the  one  to  the  other,  they 
should  inform  the  king  that  they  thought  an  armed 
force  was  coming  against  them  ;  but  none  thought  it 

*  The  Wolf  of  Fenri^  one  of  the  children  of  Lok  begotten  with  a 
giantess,  was  chained  to  a  rock,  and  gagged  by  a  sword  placed  in  his 
mouth,  to  prevent  him  devouring  mankind.  Fenri's  wolf's-gag  is  a 
scaldic  expression  for  a  sword. 

•f  The  stones  set  on  end  in  the  ground,  and  10  or  12  feet  high  or 
more,  are  called  standing  stones  in  the  Orkney  Isles,  and  other  places 
held  by  the  Scandinavians ;  and  the  oblong  tumuli  found  on  the  coast 
have  very  probably  been  cast  over  small  ships  turned  bottom  up  over 
the  bodies  of  the  slain,  as  described  in  this  chapter,  and  are  called  ship 
mounds,  to  distinguish  them  from  other  mounds,  by  the  Norwegian 
antiquaries. 

z  2 


340  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  advisable  to  be  the  bearer  of  an  alarm  of  war  to  the 
king,  as  he  had  set  heavy  penalties  on  those  who  raised 
such  alarms  falsely,  yet  they  thought  it  unsuitable 
that  the  king  should  remain  in  ignorance  of  what  they 
saw.*  Then  one  of  them  went  into  the  room  and 
asked  Eyvind  Finsson  to  come  out  as  fast  as  possible, 
for  it  was  very  needful.  Eyvind  immediately  came 
out,  and  went  to  Avhere  he  could  see  the  ships,  and 
saw  directly  that  a  great  army  was  on  the  way  ;  and 
he  returned  in  all  haste  into  the  room,  and,  placing 
himself  before  the  king,  said,  "  Short  is  the  hour  for 
acting,  and  long  the  hour  for  feasting."  The  king 
cast  his  eyes  upon  him,  and  said,  "  What  now  is  in  the 
way?"    Eyvind  said  — 

"  Up,  king  !   the  avengers  are  at  hand  ! 
Eric's  bold  sons  approach  the  land  ! 
The  judgment  of  the  sword  they  crave 
Against  their  foe.      Thy  wrath  I  brave; 
Tho'  well  1  know  'tis  no  light  thing 
To  bring  war-tidings  to  the  king. 
And  tell  him  'tis  no  time  to  rest. 
Up  !   gird  your  armour  to  your  breast : 
Thy  honour's  dearer  than  my  life ; 
Therefore  I  say,  up  to  the  strife  ! " 

Then  said  the  king,  "  Thou  art  too  brave  a  fellow, 
Eyvind,  to  bring  us  any  false  alarm  of  war."  The 
others  all  said  it  was  a  true  report.  The  king  ordered 
the  tables  to  be  removed,  and  then  he  went  out  to 
look  at  the  ships ;  and  when  it  could  be  clearly  seen 
that  these  were  shij)s  of  war,  the  king  asked  his  men 
what  resolution  they  should  take — whether  to  give 
battle  with  the  men  they  had,  or  go  on  board  ship 
and  sail  away  northwards  along  the  land.     "  For  it  is 

*  A  curious  instance  of  the  discipline  and  deference  for  the  king  of 
these  Northmen,  and  which  accounts  for  their  success  against  the  people 
they  invaded,  and  is  also  singularly  in  contrast  with  what  follows  —  the 
reference  by  the  king  to  his  men  for  approving  his  plan  of  giving  battle, 
and  not  retreating.  This  strict  discipline  and  freedom  united  accounts 
for  the  success  of  their  predatory  expeditions. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  341 

easy  to  see,"  said  he,  "  that  we  must  now  fight  against  saga  iv. 
a  much  greater  force  than  we  ever  had  against  us 
before ;  although  we  thought  just  the  same  the  last 
time  we  fought  against  Gunhild's  sons."  No  one  was 
in  a  hurry  to  give  an  answer  to  the  king ;  but  at  last 
Eyvind  replied  to  the  king's  speech :  — 

"  Thou  who  in  the  battle-plain 

Hast  often  poured  the  sharp  spear-rain ! 

Ill  it  beseems  our  warriors  brave 

To  fly  upon  the  ocean  wave  : 

To  fly  upon  the  blue  wave  north. 

When  Harald  from  the  south  comes  forth. 

With  many  a  ship  riding  in  pride 

Upon  the  foaming  ocean-tide  ; 

With  many  a  ship  and  southern  viking, — 

Let  us  take  shield  in  hand,  brave  king  ! " 

The  king  replied,  "  Thy  counsel,  Eyvind,  is  manly, 
and  after  my  own  heart ;  but  I  will  hear  the  opinion 
of  others  upon  this  matter."  Now  as  the  king's  men 
thought  they  discerned  what  way  the  king  was  in- 
clined to  take,  they  answered  that  they  would  rather 
fall  bravely  and  like  men,  than  fly  before  the  Danes  ; 
adding,  that  they  had  often  gained  the  victory  against 
greater  odds  of  numbers.  The  king  thanked  them 
for  their  resolution,  and  bade  them  arm  themselves  ; 
and  all  the  men  did  so.  The  king  put  on  his  armour, 
and  girded  on  his  sword  Quernbiter,  and  put  a  gilt 
helmet  upon  his  head,  and  took  a  spear  in  his  hand, 
and  a  shield  by  his  side.  He  then  drew  up  his  court- 
men  and  the  bonders  in  one  body,  and  set  up  his 
banner. 

After  Gamle's  death  King  Harald,  Eric's  son,  was    Chapter 
the  chief  of  the  brothers,  and  he  had  a  great  army  xhe  arma- 
with  him  from  Denmark.     In  their  army  were  also  ^^]'\  °^ 
their  mother's  brothers,  —  Eyvind  Skreya,   and  Alf 
Askmand,  both  strong  and  able  men,  and  great  man- 
slayers.     The    sons   of  Eric   brought  up  with    their 
ships  off  the  island,  and  it  is  said  that  their  force  was 

z  3 


342  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  IV.  not  less  than  six  to  one,  —  so  much  stronger  in  men 
were  Eric's  sons. 

Chapter  When  King  HakoH  had  drawn  up  his  men,  it  is  told 
King  Ha-  ^f  him  that  he  threw  off  his  armour  before  the  battle 
kon's  battle  ■J3e2:an.     So  siufi^s  Evvind  Skaldaspiller ;  — 

array.  ^  o         j  x. 

"  They  found  Biorne's  brother*  bold 
Under  his  banner  as  of  old. 
Ready  for  battle.      Foes  advance, — 
The  front  rank  raise  the  shining  lance; 
And  now  begins  the  bloody  fray  ! 
Now!  now  begins  Hildur's  wild  play.'t 
Our  noble  king,  whose  name  strikes  fear 
Into  each  Danish  heart, — whose  spear 
Has  single-handed  spilt  the  blood 
Of  many  a  Danish  noble,  —  stood 
Beneath  his  helmet's  eagle  wing  \ 
Amidst  his  guards;   but  the  brave  king 
Scorned  to  wear  armour,  while  his  men 
Bared  naked  breasts  against  the  rain 
Of  spear  and  arrow.     Off  he  flung 
His  coat  of  mail,  his  breast-plate  rung 
Against  the  stones  ;  and,  blithe  and  gay. 
He  rushed  into  the  thickest  fray. 
With  golden  helm,  and  naked  breast, 
Brave  Hakon  played  at  slaughter's  feast." 

King  Hakon  selected  willingly  such  men  for  his 
guard  or  court-men  as  were  distinguished  for  their 
strength  and  bravery,  as  his  father  King  Harald  also 
used  to  do  ;  and  among  these  was  Thoralf  Skolinson 
the  Strong,  who  went  on  one  side  of  the  king.  He  had 
helmet  and  shield,  spear  and  sword ;  and  his  sword 
was  called  by  the  name  of  Footbreadth.  It  was  said 
that  Thoralf  and  King  Hakon  were  equal  in  strength. 
Thord  Siarekson  speaks  of  it  in  the  poem  he  composed 
concerning  Thoralf:  — 

*'  The  king's  men  went  with  merry  words 
To  the  sharp  clash  of  shields  and  swords. 
When  these  wild  rovers  of  the  sea 
At  Fitiar  fought.     Stout  Thoralf  he 


*  King  Hakon.  f  Hildur's  play  was  battle. 

\  The  helm  was  adorned  with  eagle's  feathers,  or  with  the  figure  of 
an  eagle. 


KINGS   OF  NORWAY.  343 

Next  to  the  Northmen's  hero  came,  saga  iv. 

Scattering  wide  round  the  battle  flame 
For  in  the  storm  of  shields  not  one 
Ventured  like  him  with  brave  Hakon." 

When  both  lines  met  there  was  a  hard  combat,  and 
much  bloodshed.  The  combatants  threw  their  spears, 
and  then  drew  their  swords.  Then  King  Hakon,  and 
Thoralf  with  him,  went  in  advance  of  the  banner, 
cutting  down  on  both  sides  of  them.  So  says  Ey vind 
Skaldaspiller :  — 

"  The  body-coats  of  linked  steel. 
The  woven  iron  coats  of  mail. 
Like  water  fly  before  the  swing 
Of  Hakon's  sword  —  the  champion-king. 
About  each  Gotland  war-man's  head 
Helm  splits,  like  ice  beneath  the  tread, 
Cloven  by  the  axe  or  sharp  sword-blade. 
The  brave  king,  foremost  in  the  fight. 
Dyes  crimson-red  the  spotless  white 
Of  his  bright  shield  with  foemen's  gore,  — 
Amidst  the  battle  wild  uproar, 
Wild  pealing  round  from  shore  to  shore." 

King  Hakon  was  very  conspicuous   among    other    Chapter 
men,  and  also  when  the  sun  shone  his  helmet  glanced.  The  faii  of 
and  thereby  many  weapons  were  directed    at   him.  §^7^"^ 
Then  Ey  vind  Finnson  took  a  hat  and  put  it  over  the  and  of  Aif 
king's  helmet.    Now  Eyvind  Skreya  called  out,  "  Does 
the  king  of  the  Norsemen  hide  himself,  or  has  he  fled  ? 
Where  is  now  the  golden  helmet  ?  "    Then  Eyvind,  and 
his  brother  Alf  with  him,  pushed  on  like  fools  or  mad- 
men.    The  king  said,  "  Come  on  as  ye  are  coming, 
and  ye  will  find  the  king  of  the  Norsemen."    So  says 
Eyvind  Skaldaspiller :  — 

^'  The  raiser  of  the  storm  of  shields, 
The  conqueror  in  battle  fields, — 
Hakon  the  brave,  the  warrior's  friend. 
Who  scatters  gold  with  liberal  hand. 
Heard  Skreya's  taunt,  and  saw  him  rush 
Amidst  the  sharp  spears'  thickest  push. 
And  loudly  shouted  in  reply  — 
'  If  thou  wilt  for  the  victory  try. 
The  Norseman's  king  thou  soon  shalt  find ! 
Hold  onwards,  friend  !   Hast  thou  a  mind  } '  '* 

z  4 


344  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  IV. 


It  was  also  but  a  short  space  of  time  before  Eyvind 
did  come  up  swinging  his  sword,  and  made  a  cut  at 
the  king  ;  but  Thoralf  thrust  his  shield  so  hard  against 
Eyvind  that  he  tottered  with  the  shock.  Now  the 
king  takes  his  sword  Quernbiter  with  both  hands,  and 
hcAved  Eyvind  through  helm  and  head,  and  clove  him 
down  to  the  shoulders.  Thoralf  also  slew  Alf  Ask- 
mand.      So  says  Eyvind  Skaldaspiller :  — 

"  With  both  his  hands  the  gallant  king 
Swung  round  his  sword,  and  to  the  chin 
Clove  Eyvind  down  :   his  faithless  mail 
Against  it  could  no  more  avail, 
Than  the  thin  plank  against  the  shock 
When  the  ship's  side  beats  on  the  rock. 
By  his  bright  sword  with  golden  haft 
Thro'  helm,  and  head,  and  hair,  was  cleft 
The  Danish  champion  ;  and  amain, 
With  terror  smitten,  fled  his  men." 

After  this  fall  of  the  two  brothers.  King  Hakon 
pressed  on  so  hard  that  all  men  gave  way  before  his 
assault.  Now  fear  came  over  the  army  of  Eric's  sons, 
and  the  men  began  to  fly ;  and  King  Hakon,  who  was 
at  the  head  of  his  men,  pressed  on  the  flying,  and 
hewed  down  oft  and  hard.  Then  flew  an  arrow,  one 
of  the  kind  called  flein,  into  Hakon' s  arm,  into  the 
muscles  below  the  shoulder ;  and  it  is  said  by  many 
people  that  Gunhild's  shoe-boy,  whose  name  was 
Kisping,  ran  out  and  forwards  amidst  the  confusion 
of  arms,  and  called  out  "  Make  room  for  the  king- 
killer."  Others  again  say  that  nobody  could  tell  who 
shot  the  king,  which  is  indeed  the  most  likely ;  for 
spears,  arrows,  and  all  kinds  of  missiles  flew  as  thick 
as  a  snow-drift.  Many  of  the  people  of  Eric's  sons 
were  killed,  both  on  the  field  of  battle  and  on  the  way 
to  the  ships,  and  also  on  the  strand,  and  many  threw 
themselves  into  the  water.  Many  also,  among  whom 
were  Eric's  sons,  got  on  board  their  ships,  and  rowed 
away  as  fast  as  they  could,  and  Hakon' s  men  after 
them.     So  says  Thord  Siarekson  :  — 


death. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  345 

"  The  wolf^  the  murderer,  and  the  thief,  saga  iv. 

Fled  from  before  the  people's  chief : 
Few  breakers  of  the  peace  grew  old 
Under  the  Northmen's  king  so  bold. 
When  gallant  Hakon  lost  his  life 
Black  was  the  day,  and  dire  the  strife. 
It  was  bad  work  for  Gunhild's  sons, 
Leading  their  pack  of  hungry  Danes 
From  out  the  south,  to  have  to  fly, 
And  many  a  bonder  leave  to  die. 
Leaning  his  heavy  wounded  head 
On  the  oar-bench  for  feather-bed,  i 
Thoralf  was  nearest  to  the  side 
Of  gallant  Hakon  in  the  tide 
Of  battle  ;  his  the  sword  that  best 
Carved  out  the  raven's  bloody  feast: 
Amidst  the  heaps  of  foemen  slain, 
He  was  named  bravest  on  the  plain.'* 

When  Kino^  Hakon  came  out  to  his  ship  he  had  his    Chapter 

x    ^  XXXTI. 

wound  bound  up ;  but  the  blood  ran  from  it  so  much  Hakon's 
and  so  constantly,  that  it  could  not  be  stopped ;  and 
when  the  day  was  drawing  to  an  end  his  strength 
began  to  leave  him.  Then  he  told  his  men  that  he 
wanted  to  go  northwards  to  his  house  at  Alrekstad  * ; 
but  when  he  came  north,  as  far  as  Hakon's  Hillf, 
they  put  in  towards  the  land,  for  by  this  time  the 
king  was  almost  lifeless.  Then  he  called  his  friends 
around  him,  and  told  them  what  he  wished  to  be 
done  with  regard  to  his  kingdom.  He  had  only  one 
child,  a  daughter,  called  Thora,  and  had  no  son. 
Now  he  told  them  to  send  a  message  to  Eric's  sons, 
that  they  should  be  kings  over  the  country  ;  but 
asked  them  to  hold  his  friends  in  respect  and  honour. 
^'  And  if  fate,"  added  he,  "  should  prolong  my  life,  I 
will,  at  any  rate,  leave  the  country,  and  go  to  a 
Christian  land,  and  do  penance  for  what  I  have  done 
against  God;  but  should  I  die  in  heathen  land, 
give  me   any  burial  you  think  fit."     Shortly  after- 

*  Alrekstad  is  now  called  Aarstad,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bergen, 
•j"  Hakon's  Hill  is  now  called  Hoakhella,  —  the  hill  or  hella  on  the 
mainland  south  of  Alviste,  in  Asko  parish. 


346  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  wards  Hakon  expired,  at  the  little  hill  on  the  shore- 
side  at  which  he  was  born.  So  great  was  the  sorrow 
over  Hakon's  death,  that  he  was  lamented  both  by 
friends  and  enemies;  and  they  said  that  never  again 
would  Norway  see  such  a  king.  His  friends  removed 
his  body  to  Seaheim  *,  in  North  Hordaland,  and  made 
a  great  mound,  in  which  they  laid  the  king  in  full 
armour  and  in  his  best  clothes,  but  with  no  other 
goods.  They  spoke  over  his  grave,  as  heathen  people 
are  used  to  do,  and  wished  him  in  Valhalla.  Eyvind 
Skaldaspiller  composed  a  poem  on  the  death  of  King 
Hakon,  and  on  how  well  he  was  received  in  Valhalla. 
The  poem  is  called  "  Hakonarmal;"  — 

''  In  Odin's  hall  an  empty  place 
Stands  for  a  king  of  Yngve's  race ; 
'  Go,  my  valkyriars,'  Odin  said, 
*  Go  forth,  my  angels  of  the  dead, 
Gondul  and  Skogul,  to  the  plain 
Drenched  with  the  battle's  bloody  rain. 
And  to  the  dying  Hakon  tell, 
Here  in  Valhalla  he  shall  dwell.' 

"  At  Stord,  so  late  a  lonely  shore. 
Was  heard  the  battle's  wild  uproar; 
The  lightning  of  the  flashing  sword 
Burned  fiercely  at  the  shore  of  Stord. 
From  levelled  halberd  and  spear-head 
Life-blood  was  dropping  fast  and  red; 
And  the  keen  arrows'  biting  sleet 
Upon  the  shore  at  Stord  fast  beat. 

^'  Upon  the  thundering  cloud  of  shield 

Flashed  bright  the  sword-storm  o'er  the  field; 

And  on  the  plate-mail  rattled  loud 

The  arrow- shower's  rushing  cloud. 

In  Odin's  tempest-weather,  there 

Swift  whistling  through  the  angry  air; 

And  the  spear-torrent  swept  away 

Ranks  of  brave  men  from  light  of  day. 

"  With  batter'd  shield,  and  blood-smear'd  sword, 
Sits  one  beside  the  shore  at  Stord, 


*  At  Sseheimr,  now  Sem,  in  a  parish  north  of  Bergen,  the  mound 
is  still  remaining,  and  called  Hakon's.  This  battle  at  Stord  and 
Hakon's  death  took  place  in  963,  according  to  Schoning. 


KINGS    OF   NOEWAY.  347 

With  armour  crushed  and  gashed  sits  he_,  saga  IV. 

A  grim  and  ghastly  sight  to  see ; 

And  round  about  in  sorrow  stand 

The  warriors  of  his  gallant  band  : 

Because  the  king  of  Doglin's  race 

Tn  Odin's  hall  must  fill  a  place. 

"  Then  up  spake  Gondul,  standing  near. 
Resting  upon  his  long  ash  spear,  — 
^  Hakon  !   the  gods'  cause  prospers  well. 
And  thou  in  Odin's  halls  shalt  dwell ! ' 
The  king  beside  the  shore  of  Stord 
The  speech  of  the  valkyriar  heard, 
Who  sat  there  on  his  coal-black  steed. 
With  shield  on  arm  and  helm  on  head. 

"  Thoughtful,  said  Hakon,  '  Tell  me  why. 
Ruler  of  battles,  victory 
Is  so  dealt  out  on  Stord's  red  plain  ? 
Have  we  not  well  deserved  to  gain  ? ' 
'  And  is  it  not  as  well  dealt  out  ? ' 
Said  Gondul.     '  Hearest  thou  not  the  shout  ? 
The  field  is  cleared  —  the  foemen  run  — 
The  day  is  ours — the  battle  won  !' 

"  Then  Skogul  said,   '  My  coal-black  steed, 
Home  to  the  gods  I  now  must  speed. 
To  their  green  home,  to  tell  the  tiding 
That  Hakon's  self  is  thither  riding.' 
To  Hermod  and  to  Braga  then 
Said  Odin,   *  Here,  the  first  of  men. 
Brave  Hakon  comes,  the  Norsemen's  king, — 
Go  forth,  my  welcome  to  him  bring.' 

^^  Fresh  from  the  battle-field  came  in. 

Dripping  with  blood,  the  Norsemen's  king. 
'  Methinks,'  said  he,   '  great  Odin's  will 
Is  harsh,  and  bodes  me  further  ill  : 
Thy  son  from  off  the  field  to-day 
From  victory  to  snatch  away  ! ' 
But  Odin  said,   ^  Be  thine  the  joy 
Valhalla  gives,  my  own  brave  boy  !' 

"  And  Braga  said,   '  Eight  brothers  here 
Welcome  thee  to  Valhalla's  cheer. 
To  drain  the  cup,  or  fights  repeat 
Where  Hakon  Eric's  earls  beat.' 
Quoth  the  stout  king,   '  And  shall  my  gear. 
Helm,  sword,  and  mail-coat,  axe  and  spear. 
Be  still  at  hand  ?     'Tis  good  to  hold 
Fast  by  our  trusty  friends  of  old.' 


348  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  IV.  '^  Well  was  it  seen  that  Hakon  still 

Had  saved  the  temples  from  all  iU ;  * 

For  the  whole  council  of  the  gods 
Welcomed  the  king  to  their  abodes. 
Happy  the  day  when  men  are  born 
Like  Hakon,  who  all  base  things  scorn_,  • 
Win  from  the  brave  an  honoured  name, 
And  die  amidst  an  endless  fame. 

'^  Sooner  shall  Fenri's  wolf  "j*  devour 
The  race  of  man  from  shore  to  shore^ 
Than  such  a  grace  to  kingly  crown 
As  gallant  Hakon  want  renown. 
Life,  land,  friends,  riches,  all  will  fly. 
And  we  in  slavery  shall  sigh.  J 
But  Hakon  in  the  blessed  abodes 
For  ever  lives  with  the  bright  gods." 


*  Hakon,  although  a  Christian,  appears  to  have  favoured  the  old 
religion,  and  spared  the  temples  of  Odin ;  and  therefore  a  place  in  Val- 
halla is  assigned  him. 

•j"  The  wolf  of  Fenri  is  kept  in  chains  and  gagged  with  a  sword 
until  the  end  of  the  world,  when  he  is  to  devour  mankind. 

J  This  is  supposed  to  allude  to  the  successor  of  Hakon,  one  of  Eric's 
sons,  whose  government  was  tyrannical  and  disliked. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  349 


SAGA  V. 


Y. 

SAGA  OF  KING  HARALD  GREYSKIN,  AND  OF  EARL 
HAKON  SON  OF  SIGURD.* 

When  King  Hakon  was  killed,  the  sons  of  Eric  took  Chapter 
the  sovereignty  of  Norway.  Harald,  who  was  the  Beginning 
oldest  of  the  livin  o^  brothers,  was  over  them  in  dis^-  °^  *^^  so- 
nity.  Their  mother  Gunhild,  who  was  called  the  of  the  sons 
King-mother,  mixed  herself  much  in  the  affairs  of  the  an^Ibout 
country.     There  were  many  chiefs  in  the  land  at  that  Eyvind 

•/  •/  ^  Skalda- 

time.  There  was  Try ggve  Olafsson  in  the  Eastland,  spiiier. 
Gudrod  Biornson  in  the  Westfold,  Sigurd  earl  of  Lade 
in  the  Drontheim  land  ;  but  Gunhild's  sons  held  the 
middle  of  the  country  the  first  winter.  There  went 
messages  and  ambassadors  between  Gunhild's  sons 
and  Tryggve  and  Gudrod,  and  all  was  settled  upon 
the  footing  that  they  should  hold  from  Gunhild's  sons 
the  same  part  of  the  country  which  they  formerly  had 
held  under  King  Hakon.  A  man  called  Glum  Geirason, 
who  was  King  Harald' s  scald,  and  was  a  very  brave 
man,  made  this  song  upon  King  Hakon's  death  :  — 

"  Gamle  is  avenged  by  Harald  ! 

Great  is  thy  deed,  thou  champion  bold  ! 
The  rumour  of  it  came  to  me 
In  distant  lands  beyond  the  sea^ 
How  Harald  gave  King  Hakon's  blood 
To  Odin's  ravens  for  their  food." 

This  song  was  much  favoured.  When  Eyvind 
Finn  son  heard  of  it  he  composed  the  song  which 
was  given  before f,  viz. :  — 

"  Our  dauntless  king  with  Gamle's  gore 

Sprinkled  his  bright  sword  o'er  and  o'er/'  &c. 

This  song  also  was  much  favoured,  and  was  spread 

*   Harald    Graafeld   or  Greyskin    reigned   from   about  the  year  963 
to  about  the  year  977 ;  and  Earl  Hakon  from  about  978  to  996. 
t  Chapter  27-  of  the  Saga  of  Hakon  Athelstan's  foster-son. 


350  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  V.  widely  abroad ;  and  when  King  Harald  came  to  hear 
of  it,  he  laid  a  charge  against  Eyvind  affecting  his 
life;  but  friends  made  up  the  quarrel,  on  the  condi- 
tion that  Eyvind  should  in  future  be  Harald' s  scald, 
as  he  had  formerly  been  King  Hakon's.  There  was 
also  some  relationship  between  them,  as  Gunhild, 
Eyvind' s  mother,  was  a  daughter  of  Earl  Halfdan,  and 
her  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Harald  Haarfager. 
Thereafter  Eyvind  made  a  song  about  King  Harald:  — 

"  Guardian  of  Norway,  well  we  know 
Thy  heart  failed  not  when  from  the  bow 
The  piercing  arrow-hail  sharp  rang 
On  shield  and  breast-plate^  and  the  clang 
Of  sword  resounded  in  the  press 
Of  battle,  like  the  splitting  ice ; 
For  Harald,  wild  wolf  of  the  wood, 
Must  drink  his  fill  of  foemen's  blood." 

Gunhild' s  sons  resided  mostly  in  the  middle  of  the 
country,  for  they  did  not  think  it  safe  for  them  to 
dwell  among  the  people  of  Drontheim  or  of  Yiken, 
where  King  Hakon's  best  friends  lived ;  and  also  in 
both  places  there  were  many  powerful  men.  Pro- 
posals of  agreement  then  passed  between  Gunhild' s 
sons  and  Earl  Sigurd,  for  they  got  no  scatt  from  the 
Drontheim  country ;  and  at  last  an  agreement  was 
concluded  between  the  kings  and  the  earl,  and  con- 
firmed by  oath.  Earl  Sigurd  was  to  get  the  same 
power  in  the  Drontheim  land  which  he  had  possessed 
under  King  Hakon,  and  on  that  they  considered 
themselves  at  peace.  All  Gunhild' s  sons  had  the 
character  of  being  penurious ;  and  it  was  said  they 
hid  their  money  in  the  ground.  Eyvind  Skaldaspiller 
made  a  song  about  this :  — 

''  Main-mast  of  battle  !   Harald  bold  ! 
In  Hakon's  days  the  scald  wore  gold 
Upon  his  falcon's  seat*;  he  wore 
Rolf  Krake's  seedl,  the  yellow  ore, 

*  One  of  the  Edda  figures  of  speech  for  the  hand. 

■j*  Rolf  Krake  scattered  gold  on  his  flight  over  the  Fyrisvolde,  to 
divert  the  pursuit  of  Adils'  men.  The  meaning  is,  the  scalds  had  gold 
rings  on  their  fingers  in  Hakon's  days. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


351 


Sown  by  him  as  he  fled  away. 
The  avenger  Adils'  speed  to  stay. 
The  gold  crop  grows  upon  the  plain ; 
But  Frode's  girls  so  gay*  in  vain 
Grind  out  the  golden  meal,  while  those 
Who  rule  o'er  Norway's  realm  like  foes, 
In  mother  earth's  old  bosom  hide 
The  wealth  which  Hakon  far  and  wide 
Scattered  with  generous  hand :   the  sun 
Shone  in  the  days  of  that  great  one. 
On  the  gold  band  of  Fulla's  brow  "j". 
On  gold-ringed  hands  that  bend  the  bow. 
On  the  scald's  hand;  but  of  the  ray 
Of  bright  gold,  glancing  like  the  spray 
Of  sun-lit  waves,  no  scald  now  sings  — 
Buried  are  golden  chains  and  rings." 

Now  when  King  Harald  heard  this  song,  he  sent  a 
message  to  Eyvind  to  come  to  him,  and  Avhen  Eyvind 
came  made  a  charge  against  him  of  being  unfaithful. 
''  And  it  ill  becomes  thee,"  said  the  king,  "  to  be 
my  enemy,  as  thou  hast  entered  into  my  service." 
Eyvind  then  made  these  verses  :  — 

''  One  lord  I  had  before  thee,  Harald  ! 
One  dear- loved  lord  !    Now  am  I  old. 
And  do  not  wish  to  change  again.  — 
To  that  loved  lord,  through  strife  and  pain. 
Faithful  I  stood;   still  true  to  Hakon, — 
To  my  good  king,  and  him  alone. 
But  now  I'm  old  and  useless  grown. 
My  hands  are  empty,  wealth  is  flown  ; 
I  am  but  fit  for  a  short  space 
In  thy  court-hall  to  fill  a  place." 

But  King  Harald  forced  Eyvind  to  submit  himself  to 
his  clemency.  Eyvind  had  a  great  gold  ring,  which 
was  called  Molde,  that  had  been  dug  up  out  of  the 
earth  long  since.  This  ring  the  king  said  he  must 
have  as  the  mulct  for  the  offence;  and  there  was  no 
help  for  it.     Then  Eyvind  sang  :  — 

*  Menia  and  Fenia  were  strong  girls  of  the  giant  race,  whom  Frode 
bought  in  Sweden  to  grind  gold  and  good  luck  to  him ;  and  their  meal 
means  gold. 

"j"  FuUa  was  one  of  Odin's  followers,  who  wore  a  gold  band  on  the 
forehead  ;  and  the  figure  means  gold,  —  that  the  sun  shone  on  gold 
rings  on  the  hands  of  the  scalds  in  Hakon's  days. 


SAGA  V, 


852 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  V. 


Chapter 
II. 
Of  the 
Chris- 
tianity of 
Gunhild's 
sons. 


"  I  go  across  the  ocean-foam, 
Swift  skating  to  my  Iceland  home 
Upon  the  ocean-skates^',  fast  driven 
By  gales  by  Thurse's  witch-wife  given. 
For  from  the  falcon- bearing  hand 
Harald  has  plucked  the  gold  snake-band 
My  father  wore  —  by  lawless  might 
Has  taken  what  is  mine  by  right." 

Eyvind  went  home ;  but  it  is  not  told  that  he  ever 
came  near  the  kinci:  ao^ain. 

Gunhild's  sons  embraced  Christianity  in  England, 
as  told  before ;  but  when  they  came  to  rule  over  Nor- 
way they  made  no  progress  in  spreading  Christianity, 
— only  they  pulled  down  the  temples  of  the  idols,  and 
cast  away  the  sacrifices  where  they  had  it  in  their 
power,  and  raised  great  animosity  by  doing  so.  The 
good  crops  of  the  country  were  soon  wasted  in  their 
days,  because  there  were  many  kings,  and  each  had 
his  court  about  him.  They  had  therefore  great  ex- 
penses, and  were  very  greedy.  Besides,  they  only 
observed  those  laws  of  King  Hakon  which  suited 
themselves.  They  were,  however,  all  of  them  re- 
markably handsome  men  —  stout,  strong,  and  expert 
in  all  exercises.  So  says  Glum  Geirason,  in  the  verses 
he  composed  about  Harald,  Gunhild's  son  :  — 

"■  The  foeman's  terror,  Harald  bold. 
Had  gained  enough  of  yellow  gold ; 
Had  Heimdal's  teeth "j*  enough  in  store. 
And  understood  twelve  aits  or  more." 

The  brothers  sometimes  went  out  on  expeditions 
together,  and  sometimes  each  on  his  own  account. 
They  were  fierce,  but  brave  and  active;  and  great 
warriors,  and  very  successful. 


*  Ocean's  skates,  —  an  expression  for  ships. 

+  Heimdal  was  one  of  the  gods,  whose  horse  was  called  Gold  Head ; 
and  the  horse's  teeth  were  of  gold.  Heimdal's  teeth  is  a  figurative  ex- 
pression of  the  scald  for  gold.  In  the  translation  these  figurative  expres- 
sions are  retained  when  they  can  be  explained  briefly,  as  they  show  the 
nature  of  the  poetic  language  of  the  original. 


KINGS    OF   NORV/AY.  353 

Gunhild  the  King-mother,  and  her  sons,  often  met,     saga  v. 

and  talked  together  upon  the  government  of  the  coun-    chapter 

try.     Once    Gunhild  asked   her  sons  what  they  in-  ^.^^^• 

tended   to    do    with   their   kin2:dom    of  Drontheim.  councils 

bin 
"  Ye  have  the  title  of  king,  as  your  forefathers  had  cVuhiki 

before  you ;  but  you  have  little  land  or  people,  and  and  her 

there    are   many  to    divide   with.     In   the  East,   at 

Viken,  there  are  Tryggve  and  Gudrod ;  and  they  have 

no   right,   from   relationship,   to  their  governments. 

There  is  besides  Earl  Sigurd  ruling  over  the  whole 

Drontheim  country ;   and  no  reason  can  I  see  why  ye 

let  so  large  a  kingdom  be  ruled  by  an  earl,  and  not 

by  yourselves.     It  appears  wonderful  to  me  that  ye 

go  every  summer  upon  viking  cruises  against  other 

lands,  and  allow  an  earl  within  the  country  to  take 

your  father's  heritage  from  you.     Your  grandfather, 

whose  name  you  bear.  King  Harald,  thought  it  but  a 

small  matter  to  take  an  earl's  life  and  land  when  he 

subdued  all  Norway,  and  held  it  under  him  to  old 

age." 

Harald  rephed,  ''  It  is  not  so  easy,  mother,  to  cut 
oiF  Earl  Sigurd  as  to  slay  a  kid  or  a  calf.  Earl 
Sigurd  is  of  high  birth,  powerful  in  relations,  popu- 
lar, and  prudent ;  and  I  think  if  the  Drontheim  people 
knew  for  certain  there  was  enmity  between  us,  they 
would  all  take  his  side,  and  we  could  expect  only  evil 
from  them.  I  don't  think  it  would  be  safe  for  any  of 
us  brothers  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Drontheim 
people." 

Then  said  Gunhild,  "  We  shall  go  to  work  another 
way,  and  not  put  ourselves  forward.  Harald  and 
Erling  shall  come  in  harvest  to  Nordmor,  and  there 
I  shall  meet  you,  and  we  shall  consult  together  what 
is  to  be  done." 

Earl  Sio:urd  had  a  brother  called  Griote^aard,  who    Chapter 

.       -.  IV 

was  much  younger,  and  much  less  respected ;  in  fact.  The  plans 
was  held  in  no  esteem.     He  had  many  people,  how-  ^^  ^""■ 

VOL.  I.  A  A 


354  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

sAGA^v.  ever,  about  him,  and  in  summer  went  on  viking 
hiid's  sons  cruises,  and  gathered  to  himself  property.  Now  King 
gaard.  '  Harald  sent  messengers  to  Drontheim  with  offers  of 
friendship,  and  with  presents.  The  messengers  de- 
clared that  King  Harald  was  wilhng  to  be  on  the 
same  friendly  terms  with  the  earl  that  King  Hakon 
had  been :  adding,  that  they  wished  the  earl  to  come 
to  King  Harald,  that  their  friendship  might  be  put  on 
a  firm  footing.  The  Earl  Sigurd  received  well  the 
king's  messengers  and  friendly  message,  but  said 
that  on  account  of  his  many  affairs  he  could  not  come 
to  the  king.  He  sent  many  friendly  gifts,  and  many 
glad  and  grateful  words  to  the  king,  in  return  for  his 
friendship.  With  this  reply  the  messengers  set  off, 
and  went  to  Griotgaard,  for  whom  they  had  the  same 
message,  and  brought  him  good  presents,  and  offered 
him  King  Harald' s  friendship,  and  invited  him  to  visit 
the  king.  Griotgaard  promised  to  come  ;  and  at  the 
appointed  time  he  paid  a  visit  to  King  Harald  and 
Gunhild,  and  was  received  in  the  most  friendly  man- 
ner. They  treated  him  on  the  most  intimate  footing, 
so  that  Griotgaard  had  access  to  their  private  con- 
sultations and  secret  councils.  At  last  the  conver- 
sation, by  an  understanding  between  the  king  and 
queen,  was  turned  upon  Earl  Sigurd;  and  they 
spoke  to  Griotgaard  about  the  earl  having  kept  him 
so  long  in  obscurity,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  not 
join  the  king's  brothers  in  an  attack  on  the  earl.  If  he 
would  join  with  them,  the  king  promised  Griotgaard 
that  he  should  be  his  earl,  and  have  the  same  govern- 
ment that  Sigurd  had.  It  came  so  far  that  a  secret 
agreement  was  made  between  them,  that  Griotgaard 
should  spy  out  the  most  favourable  opportunity  of 
attacking  by  surprise  Earl  Sigurd,  and  should  give 
King  Harald  notice  of  it.  After  this  agreement  Griot- 
gaard returned  home  with  many  good  presents  from 
the  king. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  355 

Earl  Sigurd  went  in  harvest  into  Stordal  to  guest-    saga^v. 
quarters,  and  from  thence  went  to  Oglo  to  a  feast.     Chapter 
The  earl  usually  had  many  people  about  him,  for  he  E^ri  si- 
did  not  trust  the  kins: ;  but  now,  after  friendly  mes-  s"^^  ^umt 
sages  had  passed  between  the  king  and  him,  he  had  in  stordai. 
no  great  following  of  people  with  him.     Then  Griot- 
gaard  sent  word  to  the  king  that  he  could  never  ex- 
pect a  better  opportunity  to  fall  upon  Earl  Sigurd ; 
and    immediately,    that   very    evening,    Harald    and 
Erhng  sailed  into  Drontheim  fiord  with  several  ships 
and  many  people.    They  sailed  all  night  by  star-light, 
and  Griotgaard  came  out  to  meet  them.    Late  in  the 
night  they  came  to  Oglo  *,  where  Earl  Sigurd  was  at  the 
feast,  and  set  fire  to  the  house ;  and  burnt  the  house, 
the  earl,  and  all  his  men.     As   soon  as  it  was  day- 
light they  set  out  through  the  fiord,  and    south  to 
More,  where  they  remained  a  long  time. 

Hakon,  the  son  of  Earl  Sigurd,  was  up  in  the  in-    Chapter 
terior  of  the  Drontheim  country  when  he  heard  this  Beginning 
news.     Great  was  the  tumult  through  all  the  Dron-  ^[story  of 
theim  land,  and  every  vessel  that  could  swim  was  put  ^ari  Ha- 
into  the  water ;  and  as  soon  as  the  people  were  ga-  gurd's  son. 
thered  together  they  took  Earl  Sigurd's  son  Hakon  to 
be  their  earl  and  the  leader  of  the  troops,  and  the 
Avhole  body  steered  out  of  Drontheim  fiord.     When 
Gunhild's  sons  heard  of  this,  they  set  off  southwards 
to  Kaumsdal  and  South  More ;  and  both  parties  kept 
eye  on  each  other  by  their  spies.     Earl  Sigurd  was 
killed  two  years  after  the  fall  of  King  Hakon.     So 
says  Eyvind  Skaldaspiller  in  the  "  Haleygia-tal:'' — 

"  At  Oglo_,  as  I've  heard^  Earl  Sigurd 
Was  burnt  to  death  by  Norway's  lord,  — 
Sigurd_,  who  once  on  Hadding's  grave 
A  feast  to  Odin's  ravens  gave. 


*  The  site  of  Oglo  is  not  well  ascertained  by  the  Norwegian  anti- 
quaries.    It  is  supposed  to  be  in  Skatvold^  near  Stordal. 

AA   2 


356  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  V.  In  Oglo's  hall,  amidst  the  feast. 

When  bowls  went  round  and  ale  flow'd  fast. 
He  perished  :    Harald  lit  the  fire 
Which  burnt  to  death  the  son  of  Tyr." 

Earl  Hakon,  with  the  help  of  his  friends,  main- 
tained himself  in  the  Drontheim  country  for  three 
years ;  and  during  that  time  Gunhild's  sons  got  no 
revenues  from  it.  Hakon  had  many  a  battle  with 
Gunhild's  sons,  and  many  a  man  lost  his  life  on  both 
sides.  Of  this  Einar  Skalaglam  speaks  in  his  lay, 
called  "  Yelleklo,"  which  he  composed  about  Earl 
Hakon :  — 

'^  The  sharp  bow- shooter  on  the  sea 
Spread  wide  his  fleet,  for  well  loved  he 
The  battle  storm ;  well  loved  the  earl 
His  battle-banner  to  unfurl. 
O'er  the  well-trampled  battle-field 
He  raised  the  red  moon  of  his  shield ; 
And  often  dared  King  Eric's  son 
To  try  the  fray  with  the  Earl  Hakon." 

And  he  also  says :  — 

"  Who  is  the  man  who'll  dare  to  say 
That  Sigurd's  son  avoids  the  fray? 
He  gluts  the  raven — he  ne'er  fears 
The  arrow's  song  or  flight  of  spears. 
With  thundering  sword  he  storms  in  war. 
As  Odin  dreadful ;   or  from  far 
He  makes  the  arrow-shower  fly 
To  swell  the  sail  of  victory. 
The  victory  was  dearly  bought, 
And  many  a  viking-fight  was  fought 
Before  the  swinger  of  the  sword 
Was  of  the  eastern  country  lord." 

And  Einar  tells  also  how  Earl  Hakon  avenged  his 
father's  murder :  — 

^'  I  praise  the  man,  my  hero  he. 
Who  in  his  good  ship  roves  the  sea. 
Like  bird  of  prey,  intent  to  win 
Red  vengeance  for  his  slaughtered  kin. 
From  his  blue  sword  the  iron  rain 
That  freezes  life  poured  down  amain 
On  him  who  took  his  father's  life, 
On  him  and  his  men  in  the  strife. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY. 


357 


To  Odin  many  a  soul  was  driven,  —  saga  v. 

To  Odin  many  a  rich  gift  given. 
Loud  raged  the  storm  on  battle-  field  — 
Axe  rang  on  helm,  and  sword  on  shield." 

The  friends  on  both  sides  at  last  laid  themselves 
between,  and  brought  proposals  of  peace  ;  for  the 
bonders  suffered  by  this  strife  and  war  in  the  land. 
At  last  it  was  brought  to  this,  by  the  advice  of  pru- 
dent men,  that  Earl  Hakon  should  have  the  same 
power  in  the  Drontheim  land  which  his  father  Earl 
Sigurd  had  enjoyed ;  and  the  kings,  on  the  other  hand, 
should  have  the  same  dominion  as  King  Hakon  had  : 
and  this  agreement  was  settled  with  the  fullest  pro- 
mises of  fidelity  to  it.  Afterwards  a  great  friendship 
arose  between  Earl  Hakon  and  Gunhild,  although 
they  sometimes  attempted  to  deceive  each  other.  And 
thus  matters  stood  for  three  years  longer,  in  which 
time  Earl  Hakon  sat  quietly  in  his  dominions. 

King  Harald  had  generally  his  seat  in  Hordaland  Chapter 
and  Rogaland,  and  also  his  brothers ;  but  very  often,  of  Haraia 
also,  they  went  to  Hardanger.  One  summer  it  hap-  Greyskin. 
pened  that  a  vessel  came  from  Iceland  belonging  to 
Icelanders,  and  loaded  with  skins  and  peltry.  They 
sailed  to  Hardanger,  where  they  heard  the  greatest 
number  of  people  were  assembled  ;  but  when  the  folks 
came  to  deal  with  them,  nobody  would  buy  their 
skins.  Then  the  steersman  went  to  King  Harald, 
whom  he  had  been  acquainted  with  before,  and  com- 
plained of  his  ill  luck.  The  king  promised  to  visit 
him,  and  did  so.  King  Harald  was  very  condescend- 
ing, and  full  of  fun.  He  came  with  a  fully  manned 
boat,  looked  at  the  skins,  and  then  said  to  the  steers- 
man, "  Wilt  thou  give  me  a  present  of  one  of  these 
wolf-skins  ? "  *  "  Willingly,"  said  the  steersman, ''  if  it 
were  ever  so  many."    On  this  the  king  wrapped  him- 

*  It  is  not  clear  that  the  '^grey  skins"  of  this  story  were  wolves' 
skins.  It  is  likely  they  were  fox  or  seal  skins.  The  wolf  is  not 
found  in  Iceland. 

A  A    3 


358 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  V. 


Chapter 
VIII. 
Earl  Eric's 
birth. 


Chapter 
IX. 

King 
Tryggve 
Olafsson's 
murder. 


self  up  in  a  wolf-skin,  and  went  back  to  his  boat ; 
but  before  tbey  rowed  away  from  the  ship,  every  man 
in  his  suite  bought  such  another  wolf- skin  as  the  king 
wore  for  himself.  In  a  few  days  so  many  people 
came  to  buy  skins,  that  not  half  of  them  could  be 
served  with  what  they  wanted ;  and  thereafter  the 
king  was  called  Harald  Grey  skin. 

Earl  Hakon  came  one  winter  to  the  Uplands  to  a 
feast,  and  it  so  happened  that  he  had  intercourse  with 
a  girl  of  mean  birth.  Some  time  after  the  girl  had 
to  prepare  for  her  confinement ;  and  she  bore  a  child, 
a  boy,  who  had  water  poured  on  him,  and  was  named 
Eric.  The  mother  carried  the  boy  to  Earl  Hakon, 
and  said  that  he  was  the  father.  The  earl  placed 
him  to  be  brought  up  with  a  man  called  Thorleif  the 
Wise,  who  dwelt  in  Midaldal,  and  was  a  rich  and 
powerful  man,  and  a  great  friend  of  the  earl.  Eric 
gave  hopes  very  early  that  he  would  become  an  able 
man,  was  handsome  in  countenance,  and  stout  and 
strong  for  a  child ;  but  the  earl  did  not  pay  much 
attention  to  him.  The  earl  himself  was  one  of  the 
handsomest  men  in  countenance,  —  not  tall,  but  very 
strong,  and  well  practised  in  all  kinds  of  exercises; 
and  withal  prudent,  of  good  understanding,  and  a 
deadly  man  at  arms. 

It  happened  one  harvest  that  Earl  Hakon,  on  a 
journey  in  the  Uplands,  came  to  Hedemark ;  and  King 
Tryggve  Olafsson  and  King  Gudrod  Biorneson  met 
him  there,  and  Dale-Gudbrand  also  came  to  the  meet- 
ing. They  had  agreed  to  meet,  and  they  talked  to- 
gether long  by  themselves ;  but  so  much  only  was 
known  of  their  business,  that  they  were  to  be  friends 
of  each  other.  They  parted,  and  each  went  home  to 
his  own  kingdom.  Gunhild  and  her  sons  came  to 
hear  of  this  meeting,  and  they  suspected  it  must  have 
been  to  lay  a  treasonable  plot  against  the  kings ;  and 
they  often  talked  of  this  among  themselves.     When 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  359 

spring  began  to  set  in,  King  Harald  and  his  brother  saga  v. 
King  Gudrod  proclaimed  that  they  were  to  make  a 
viking  cruise,  as  usual,  either  in  the  West  sea,  or  the 
Baltic.  The  people  accordingly  assembled,  launched 
the  ships  into  the  sea,  and  made  themselves  ready  to 
sail.  When  they  were  drinking  the  farewell  ale, — and 
they  drank  bravely,  —  much  and  many  things  Avere 
talked  over  at  the  drink-table,  and,  among  other 
things,  were  comparisons  between  different  men, 
and  at  last  between  the  kings  themselves.  One 
said  that  King  Harald  excelled  his  brothers  by  far, 
and  in  every  way.  On  this  King  Gudrod  was  very 
angry,  and  said  that  he  was  in  no  respect  behind 
Harald,  and  was  ready  to  prove  it.  Instantly  both 
parties  were  so  inflamed  that  they  challenged  each 
other  to  battle,  and  ran  to  their  arms.  But  some  of 
the  guests  who  were  less  drunk,  and  had  more  under- 
standing, came  between  them,  and  quieted  them ;  and 
each  went  to  his  ship,  but  nobody  expected  that  they 
would  all  sail  together.  Gudrod  sailed  eastward  along 
the  land,  and  Harald  went  out  to  sea,  saying  he  would 
go  to  the  westward  ;  but  when  he  came  outside  of 
the  islands  he  steered  east  along  the  coast,  outside  of 
the  rocks  and  isles.  Gudrod,  again,  sailed  inside, 
through  the  usual  channel,  to  Yiken,  and  eastwards 
to  Folden.  He  then  sent  a  message  to  King  Tryggve 
to  meet  him,  that  they  might  make  a  cruise  together 
in  summer  in  the  Baltic  to  plunder.  Tryggve  ac- 
cepted willingly,  and  as  a  friend,  the  invitation  ;  and 
as  he  heard  King  Gudrod  had  but  few  people  with 
him,  he  came  to  meet  him  with  a  single  boat.  They 
met  at  Yegger,  to  the  east  of  Sotaness ;  but  just  as 
they  were  come  to  the  meeting  place,  Gudrod's  men 
ran  up  and  killed  King  Tryggve  and  twelve  men. 
He  lies  buried  at  a  place  called  Tryggve' s  Cairn. 

King  Harald  sailed  far  outside  of  the  rocks  and        x. 
isles ;  but  set  his  course  to  Viken,  and  came  in  the  ^Js^f^"'^' 

A  A    4 


360 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  V.    night   time   to  Tunsberg,    and    heard   that    Gudrod 
Biorneson  was  at  a  feast  a  little  way  up  the  country. 
Then  King  Harald  set  out  immediately  with  his  fol- 
lowers, came  in  the  night,  and  surrounded  the  house. 
King  Gudrod  Biorneson  went  out  with  his  people  ; 
but  after  a  short  resistance  he  fell,  and  many  men 
with  him.      Then  King  Harald  joined  his  brother 
King  Gudrod,  and  they  subdued  all  Yiken. 
CHArTER        King    Gudrod  Biorneson    had   made  a   good  and 
Of  Harald    suitablc  marriage,  and  had  by  his  wife  a  son  called 
Graenske.     jjarald,  who  had  been  sent  to  be  fostered  to  Green- 
land to  a  lenderman  called  Hroe  the  White.     Hroe's 
son,   called    Hrane   the   Far-travelled,  was    Harald's 
foster-brother,  and  about  the  same  age.     After  his 
father  Gudrod's  fall,  Harald,  who  was  called  Graenske, 
fled  to  the  Uplands,  and  with  him  his  foster-brother 
Hrane,  and  a  few  people.     Harald  staid  a  while  there 
among  his  relations  ;  but  as  Eric's  sons  sought  after 
every  man  who  interfered  with  them,  and  especially 
those  who  might  oppose  them,  Harald  Graenske' s  friends 
and  relations  advised  him  to  leave  the  country.     Ha- 
rald therefore  went  westward  into  Sweden,  and  sought 
shipmates,  that  he  might  enter  into  company  with 
those  who  went  out  a  cruising  to  gather  property. 
Harald  became  in  this  way  a  remarkably  able  man. 
There  was  a  man   in   Sweden  at  that   time    called 
Toste,  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  clever  in  the  land 
among  those  who  had  no  high  name  or  dignity ;  and 
he  was  a  great  warrior,  who  had  been  often  in  battle, 
and  was  therefore    called  Skoglar*  Toste.     Harald 
Graenske  came  into  his  company,   and  cruised  with 
Toste  in  summer ;   and  wherever   Harald  came    he 
was  well  thought  of  by  every  one.     In  the  winter 
Harald,  after  passing  two  years  in  the  Uplands,  took 


*    From  the  valkyriar  or  companion  of  Odin  called  Skogul.      There- 
fore Skogle  Toste  was  the  warlike  Toste. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  361 

up  his  abode  with  Toste,  and  lived  five  years  with  saga  v. 
him.  Toste  had  a  daughter,  who  was  both  young 
and  handsome,  but  she  was  proud  and  high-minded. 
She  was  called  Sigrid,  and  was  afterwards  married  to 
the  Swedish  king,  Eric  the  Successful,  and  had  a  son 
by  him,  called  Olaf  the  Swede,  who  was  afterwards 
king  of  Sweden.  King  Eric  died  in  a  sick-bed  at 
Upsal,  ten  years  after  the  death  of  Styrbiorn. 

Gunhild's  sons  levied  a  great  army  in  Yiken,  and  Chapter 
sailed  along  the  land  northwards,  collecting  people  Eari  Ha- 
and  ships  on  the  way  out  of  every  district.  They  ^°^'^  ^^^'~^^' 
then  made  known  their  intent,  to  proceed  north- 
wards with  their  army  against  Earl  Hakon  in  Dron- 
theim.  When  Earl  Hakon  heard  this  news,  he  also 
collected  men,  and  fitted  out  ships ;  and  when  he 
heard  what  an  overwhelming  force  Gunhild's  sons 
had  with  them,  he  steered  south  with  his  fleet  to 
More,  pillaging  wherever  he  came,  and  killing  many 
people,  both  rich  and  poor.  He  then  sent  the  whole 
of  the  bonder  army  back  to  Drontheim ;  but  he  him- 
self, with  his  men-at-arms,  proceeded  by  both  the  dis- 
tricts of  More  and  Raumsdal,  and  had  his  spies  out  to 
the  south  of  Stad  to  spy  the  army  of  Gunhild's  sons ; 
and  when  he  heard  they  were  come  into  the  Fiords, 
and  were  waiting  for  a  fair  wind  to  sail  northwards 
round  Stad,  Earl  Hakon  set  out  to  sea  from  the  north 
side  of  Stad,  so  far  that  his  sails  could  not  be  seen 
from  the  land,  and  then  sailed  eastward  on  a  line 
with  the  coast,  and  came  to  Denmark,  from  whence 
he  sailed  into  the  Baltic,  and  pillaged  there  during 
the  summer.  Gunhild's  sons  conducted  their  army 
north  to  Drontheim,  and  remained  there  the  whole 
summer  collecting  the  scatt  and  duties.  But  when 
summer  was  advanced  they  left  Sigurd  Sieve  and 
Gudrod  behind;  and  the  other  brothers  returned 
eastward  with  the  levied  army  they  had  taken  up  in 
summer. 


362 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  V. 

Chapter 
XIII. 
Of  Earl 
Hakon  and 
Gunhild's 


Chapter 
XIV. 
Sigurd 
Sieve's 
raurder. 


Earl  Hakon,  towards  harvest,  sailed  into  the  Both- 
nian  Gulph  to  Helsingialand,  drew  his  ships  up  there 
on  the  beach,  and  took  the  land-ways  through  Hel- 
singialand and  Jemteland,  and  so  eastwards  round 
the  dividing  ridge  (the  Kiol,  or  keel  of  the  country), 
and  down  into  the  Drontheim  district.  Many  people 
streamed  towards  him,  and  he  fitted  out  ships.  When 
the  sons  of  Gunhild  heard  of  this,  they  got  on  board 
their  ships,  and  sailed  out  of  the  Fiord ;  and  Earl 
Hakon  came  to  his  seat  at  Lade,  and  remained  there 
all  winter.  The  sons  of  Gunhild,  on  the  other  hand, 
occupied  More ;  and  they  and  the  earl  attacked  each 
other  in  turns,  killing  each  other's  people.  Earl 
Hakon  kept  his  dominions  of  Drontheim,  and  was 
there  generally  in  the  winter ;  but  in  summer  he 
sometimes  went  to  Helsingialand,  where  he  went  on 
board  of  his  ships  and  sailed  with  them  down  into 
the  Baltic,  and  plundered  there;  and  sometimes  he 
remained  in  Drontheim,  and  kept  an  army  on  foot, 
so  that  Gunhild's  sons  could  get  no  hold  northwards 
of  Stad. 

One  summer  Harald  Grey  skin  with  his  troops  went 
north  to  Biarm eland  ^,  where  he  forayed,  and  fought 
a  great  battle  with  the  inhabitants  on  the  banks  of 
the  Dwina.  King  Harald  gained  the  victory,  killed 
many  people,  plundered  and  wasted  and  burned  far 
and  wide  in  the  land,  and  made  enormous  booty. 
Glum  Geirason  tells  of  it  thus :  — 

^'  I  saw  the  hero  Harald  chase 
With  bloody  sword  Biarme's  race : 
They  fly  before  him  through  the  night. 
All  by  their  burning  city's  light. 
On  Dwina's  bank,  at  Harald 's  word. 
Arose  the  storm  of  spear  and  sword. 
In  such  a  wild  war-cruise  as  this. 
Great  would  he  be  who  could  bring  peace." 


*  The  coast  of  the  Wliite  Sea.      This  name  is  supposed  to  be  still 
retained  in  the  name  Permia  given  to  this  province. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


363 


King  Sigurd  Sieve  came  to  Hersen*  Klyp's  house. 
Klyp  was  a  son  of  Thord,  and  a  grandson  of  Horda 
Kaare,  and  was  a  man  of  power  and  great  family.  He 
was  not  at  home ;  but  his  wife  Alof  gave  a  good  re- 
ception to  the  king,  and  made  a  great  feast  at  which 
there  was  much  drinking.  Alof  was  a  daughter  of 
Asbiorn,  and  sister  to  Jernskiaegge  f ,  north  in  Yriar. 
Asbiorn's  brother  was  called  Reidar,  who  was  father 
to  Styrkar,  whose  son  was  Endrid,  father  of  Einar 
Tambaskielver.  In  the  night  the  king  went  to  bed 
to  Alof  against  her  will,  and  then  set  out  on  his  jour- 
ney. The  harvest  thereafter,  King  Harald  and  his 
brother  King  Sigurd  Sieve  went  to  Fors,  and  sum- 
moned the  bonders  to  a  Thing.  There  the  bonders 
fell  on  them,  and  would  have  killed  them,  but  they 
escaped  and  took  different  roads.  King  Harald 
went  to  Hardanger,  but  King  Sigurd  to  Alrekstad. 
Now  when  the  Herse  Klyp  heard  of  this,  he  and  his 
relations  assembled  to  attack  the  king ;  and  Yemund 
Volubriot  was  chief  of  their  troop.  Now  when  they 
came  to  the  house  they  attacked  the  king,  and  Herse 
Klyp,  it  is  said,  run  him  through  with  his  sword  and 
killed  him ;  but  instantly  Klyp  was  killed  on  the  spot 
by  Erling  Gamle. 

King  Harald  Greyskin  and  his  brother  King  Gudrod 
gathered  together  a  great  army  in  the  east  country, 
with  which  they  set  out  northwards  to  Drontheim. 
When  Earl  Hakon  heard  of  it  he  collected  men,  and 
set  out  to  More,  where  he  plundered.  There  his 
father's  brother,  Griotgaard,  had  the  command  and 
defence  of  the  country  on  account  of  Gunhild's  sons, 
and  he  assembled  an  army  by  order  of  the  kings. 
Earl  Hakon  advanced  to  meet  him,  and  gave  him 


SAGA  V. 


Chapter 
XV. 

Griot- 
gaard's  fall. 


*  Hersen^  —  a  title  like  Sir  or  Sira. 
t  Jernskiaegge,,  —  iron-beard. 


364  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SAGA  V.  "battle ;  and  there  fell  Griotgaard  and  two  other  earls, 
and  many  a  man  besides.  So  says  Einar  Skala- 
glam :  — 

"  The  helm-crown'd  Hakon,  brave  as  stout. 
Again  has  put  his  foes  to  rout. 
The  bowl  runs  o'er  with  Odin's  mead,* 
That  fires  the  scald  when  mighty  deed 
Has  to  be  sung.     Earl  Hakon's  sword, 
In  single  combat,  as  I've  heard. 
Three  sons  of  earls  from  this  one  fray 
To  dwell  with  Odin  drove  away."t 

Thereafter  Earl  Hakon  went  out  to  sea,  and  sailed 
outside  the  coast,  and  came  to  Denmark.  He  went 
to  the  Danish  king,  Harald  Gormeson,  and  was  well 
received  by  him,  and  staid  with  him  all  winter.  At 
that  time  there  was  also  with  the  Danish  king  a  man 
called  Harald,  a  son  of  Knud  Gormeson,  and  a  bro- 
ther's son  of  King  Harald.  He  was  lately  come  home 
from  a  long  viking  cruise,  on  which  he  had  gathered 
great  riches,  and  therefore  he  was  called  Gold  Harald. 
He  seemed  to  stand  a  good  chance  of  coming  to  the 
Danish  kingdom. 
Chapter  King  Harald  Greyskin  and  his  brothers  proceeded 
King  northwards  to  Drontheim,  where  they  met  no  oppo- 

Erimg's  sition.  They  levied  the  scatt  duties,  and  all  other 
revenues,  and  laid  heavy  penalties  upon  the  bonders  ; 
for  the  kings  had  for  a  long  time  received  but  little 
income  from  Drontheim,  because  Earl  Hakon  was 
there  with  many  troops,  and  was  at  variance  with  these 
kings.  In  autumn  King  Harald  went  south  with  the 
greater  part  of  the  men-at-arms,  but  King  Erling 
remained  behind  Avith  his  men.  He  raised  great 
contributions  from  the  bonders,  and  pressed  severely 
on  them  ;  at  which  the  bonders  murmured  greatly. 


*   Odin's  mead,  called  Bodn,  was  the  blood  or  mead  the  sons  of 
Braga,  the  god  of  poets,  drank  to  inspire  them, 
t   To  dwell  with  Odin,  —  viz.  slew  them. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  365 

and  submitted  to  their  losses  with  impatience.     In    saga  v. 
winter  they  gathered  together  in  a  great  force  to  go 
against  King  Erling,  just  as  he  was  at  a  feast ;  and 
they  gave  battle  to  him,  and  he  with  the  most  of  his 
men  fell. 

While  Gunhild's  sons  reigned  in  Norway  the  sea-    Chapter 
sons  were  always  bad,  and  the  longer  they  reigned  or  the 
the  worse  were  the  crops ;  and  the  bonders  laid  the  ^j^orTa  ^  at 
blame  on  them.     They  were  very  greedy,  and  used  this  time, 
the  bonders  harshly.     It  came  at  length  to  be  so  bad 
that  fish,  as  well  as  corn,  were  wanting.     In  Haloga- 
land  there  was  the  greatest  famine  and  distress;  for 
scarcely  any  corn  grew,  and  even  snow  was  lying, 
and  the  cattle  were  bound  in  the  byres  all  over  the 
country   until    midsummer.       Eyvind    Skaldaspiller 
describes  it  in  his  poem,  as  he  came  outside  of  his 
house  and  found  a  thick  snow-drift  at  that  season : — 

"  'Tis  midsummer^  yet  deep  snows  rest 
On  Odin's  mother's  frozen  breast : 
Like  Laplanders,  our  cattle-kind 
In  stall  or  stable  we  must  bind." 

Eyvind  composed  a  poem  about  the  people  of  Ice-    Chapter 
land,  for  which  they  rewarded  him  by  each  bonder  of  the  ic'e- 
giving  him  three  silver  pennies,  of  full  weight  and  ^"vind^"'^ 
white  in  the  fracture.*      And  when  the  silver  was  skaida- 
brought  together  at  the  General  Thing,  the  people 
resolved  to  have  it  purified,   and  made  into  a  row 
of  clasps ;  and  after  the  workmanship  of  the  silver 
was  paid,  the  row  of  clasps  was  valued  at  fifty  marks. 
This  they  sent  to  Eyvind;  but  Eyvind  was  obliged  to 
separate  the  clasps  from  each  other,  and  sell  them  to 


*  These  are  curious  circumstances  of  the  importance  of  the  art  of 
the  scald  in  the  estimation  of  the  Iceland  people,  of  the  state  of  their 
money,  and  of  their  dress.  The  row  of  clasps  was  probably  similar 
to  the  rows  of  buttons  still  used  by  the  Friesland  fishermen  for  or- 
naments on  their  jackets. 


spiller,        J 


366 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


'^^-^^'  buy  food  for  his  household.  But  the  same  spring  a 
shoal  of  herrings  set  in  upon  the  fishing  ground 
beyond  the  coast-side;  and  Eyvind  manned  a  ship's 
boat  with  his  house  servants  and  cottars,  and  rowed 
to  where  the  herrings  were  come,  and  sang  :  — 

^*  Now  let  the  steed  of  ocean  bound 
O'er  the  North  Sea  with  dashing  sound; 
Let  nimble  tern  and  screaming  gull 
Fly  round  and  round  —  our  net  is  full. 
Fain  would  I  know  if  Fortune  sends 
A  like  provision  to  my  friends. 
Welcome  provision  'tis^  I  wot, 
That  the  whale  drives  to  our  cook's  pot." 

So  entirely  were  his  moveable  goods  exhausted, 
that  he  was  obliged  to  sell  his  arrows  to  buy  her- 
rings, or  other  meat  for  his  table :  — 

''  Our  arms  and  ornaments  of  gold 
To  buy  us  food  we  gladly  sold ; 
The  arrows  of  the  bow  gave  we 
For  the  bright  arrows  of  the  sea."* 


*  Herrings,  from  their  swift  darting  along,  are  called  the  arrows  of 
the  sea ;  and  there  is  a  play  upon  the  words  pila  (arrows)  and  sil  (her- 
rings), as  being  similar  somewhat  in  sound. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  367 


VI. 

SAGA  VI. 

KING  OLAF  TRYGGVESSON'S  SAGA.* 

King  Tryggve    Olafsson   had  married    a   wife   who    Chapter 
was  called  Astrid.       She   was  a   daughter  of  Eric  oiafXryg- 
Biodaskalde,  a  2:reat  man,   who  dwelt  at  Ofrostad.  gy^sson's 

'  <=5  7  ^  ^  birth. 

But  after  Tryggve's  death  Astrid  fled,  and  privately 
took  with  her  all  the  loose  property  she  could.  Her 
foster-father,  Thoralf  Lusiskiaeg,  followed  her,  and 
never  left  her;  and  others  of  her  faithful  followers 
spied  about  to  discover  her  enemies,  and  where  they 
were.  Astrid  was  pregnant  with  a  child  of  King 
Tryggve,  and  she  went  to  a  lake,  and  concealed 
herself  in  a  holm  or  small  island  in  it  with  a  few 
men.  Here  her  child  was  born,  and  it  was  a 
boy  ;  and  water  was  poured  over  it,  and  it  was 
called  Olaf  after  the  grandfather.  Astrid  remained 
all  summer  here  in  concealment ;  but  when  the  nights 
became  dark,  and  the  day  began  to  shorten  and  the 
weather  to  be  cold,  she  was  obliged  to  take  to  the 
land,  along  with  Thoralf  and  a  few  other  men.  They 
did  not  seek  for  houses,  unless  in  the  night  time, 
when  they  came  to  them  secretly ;  and  they  spoke  to 
nobody.  One  evening,  towards  dark,  they  came  to 
Ofrostad,  where  Astrid' s  father  Eric  dwelt,  and  pri- 
vately sent  a  man  to  Eric  to  tell  him  ;  and  Eric  took 
them  to  an  out-house,  and  spread  a  table  for  them 
mth  the  best  of  food.  When  Astrid  had  been  here 
a  short  time  her  travelling  attendants  left  her,  and 

*  Olaf  Tryggvesson  reigned  from  about  the  year  995  to  the  year 
1000. 

King  Olaf^  it  will  be  remembered^  was  one  of  Harald  Haarfager's 
sons ;  King  Tryggve  Olafsson  was  the  son  of  this  Olaf^  and  this  Olaf 
Tryggvesson  the  son  of  Tryggve. 


368 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
II. 
Of  Gun- 
hild's  sons. 


Chapter 
III. 
Astrid's 
journey. 


none  remained  behind  with  her  but  two  servant  girls, 
her  child  Olaf,  Thoralf  Lusiski^eg,  and  his  son  Thor- 
gils,  who  was  six  years  old ;  and  they  remained  all 
winter. 

After  Tryggve  Olafsson's  murder,  Harald  Grey- 
skin  and  his  brother  Gudrod  went  to  the  farm  which 
he  owned;  but  Astrid  was  gone,  and  they  could 
learn  no  tidings  of  her.  A  loose  report  came  to  their 
ears  that  she  was  pregnant  to  King  Tryggve  ;  but 
they  went  away  northwards,  as  before  related.  As 
soon  as  they  met  their  mother  Gunhild,  they  told 
her  all  that  had  taken  place.  She  inquired  particu- 
larly about  Astrid,  and  they  told  her  the  report  they 
had  heard;  but  as  Gunhild's  sons  the  same  harvest 
and  winter  after  had  bickerings  with  Earl  Hakon,  as 
before  related,  they  did  not  seek  after  Astrid  and  her 
son  that  winter. 

The  spring  after  Gunhild  sent  spies  to  the  Uplands, 
and  aU  the  way  down  to  Yiken,  to  spy  what  they 
could  about  Astrid  ;  and  her  men  came  back,  and 
could  only  tell  her  that  Astrid  must  be  with  her  fa- 
ther Eric,  and  it  was  probable  was  bringing  up  her 
infant,  the  son  of  Tryggve.  Then  Gunhild,  without 
delay,  sent  off  men  well  furnished  with  arms  and 
horses,  and  in  all  a  troop  of  thirty;  and  as  their 
leader  she  sent  a  particular  friend  of  her  own,  a 
powerful  man  called  Hakon.  Her  orders  were  to  go  to 
Ofrostad  to  Eric,  and  take  King  Tryggve's  son  from 
thence,  and  bring  the  child  to  her ;  and  with  these 
orders  the  men  went  out.  Now  when  they  were 
come  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Ofrostad,  some  of  Ericas 
friends  observed  the  troop  of  travellers,  and  about 
the  close  of  the  day  brought  him  word  of  their  ap- 
proach. Eric  immediately,  in  the  night,  made  pre- 
paration for  Astrid's  flight,  gave  her  good  guides, 
and  sent  her  away  eastward  to  Sweden,  to .  his  good 
friend  Hakon  Gamle,  who  was  a  powerful  man  there. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  369 

Long  before  day  they  departed,  and  towards  evening  saga  vi. 
they  reached  a  domain  called  Skon.  Here  they  saw  a 
large  mansion,  towards  which  they  went,  and  begged 
a  night's  lodging.  For  the  sake  of  concealment  they 
were  clad  in  mean  clothing.  There  dwelt  here  a 
bonder  called  Biorn  Edderquise,  who  was  very  rich, 
but  very  inhospitable.  He  drove  them  away  ;  and 
therefore,  towards  dark,  they  went  to  another  domain 
close  by  that  was  called  Vither.  Thorstein  was  the 
name  of  the  bonder ;  and  he  gave  them  lodging,  and 
took  good  care  of  them,  so  that  they  slept  well,  and 
were  well  entertained.  Early  that  morning  Gun- 
hild's  men  had  come  to  Ofrostad,  and  inquired  for 
Astrid  and  her  son.  As  Eric  told  them  she  was  not 
there,  they  searched  the  Avhole  house,  and  remain- 
ed till  late  in  the  day  before  they  got  any  news  of 
Astrid.  Then  they  rode  after  her  the  way  she  had 
taken,  and  late  at  night  they  came  to  Biorn  Edder- 
quise in  Skon,  and  took  up  their  quarters  there. 
Hakon  asked  Biorn  if  he  knew  any  thing  about 
Astrid,  and  he  said  some  people  had  been  there  in 
the  evening  wanting  lodgings ;  ''  but  I  drove  them 
away,  and  I  suppose  they  have  gone  to  some  of  the 
neighbouring  houses."  Thorstein's  labourer  was 
coming  from  the  forest,  having  left  his  work  at  night- 
fall, and  called  in  at  Biorn' s  house  because  it  was  in 
his  way ;  and  finding  there  were  guests  come  to  the 
house,  and  learning  their  business,  he  comes  to  Thor- 
stein and  tells  him  of  it.  As  about  a  third  part  of 
the  night  was  still  remaining,  Thorstein  wakens  his 
guests,  and  orders  them  in  an  angry  voice  to  go  about 
their  business  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were  out  of  the 
house  upon  the  road,  Thorstein  tells  them  that  Gun- 
hild's  messengers  were  at  Biorn' s  house,  and  are  upon 
the  trace  of  them.  They  entreat  of  him  to  help  them, 
and  he  gave  them  a  guide  and  some  provisions.  He 
conducted  them  through  the  forest  to  a  lake,  in  which 

VOL.  T.  B  B 


370 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA   VI. 


there  was  an  islet  overgrown  with  reeds.  They 
waded  out  to  the  islet,  and  hid  themselves  among  the 
reeds.  Early  in  the  morning  Hakon  rode  away  from 
Biorn's  into  the  township,  and  wherever  he  came  he 
asked  after  Astrid  ;  and  when  he  came  to  Thorstein's 
he  asked  if  she  had  been  there.  He  said  that  some 
people  had  been  there ;  but  as  soon  as  it  was  day- 
light they  had  set  off  again,  eastwards,  to  the  forest. 
Hakon  made  Thorstein  go  along  with  them,  as  he 
knew  all  the  roads  and  hiding-places.  Thorstein  went 
with  them ;  but  Avhen  they  were  come  into  the  woods, 
he  led  them  right  across  the  way  Astrid  had  taken. 
They  went  about  and  about  the  whole  day  to  no  pur- 
pose, as  they  could  find  no  trace  of  her;  so  they 
turned  back  to  tell  Gunhild  the  end  of  their  travel. 
Astrid  and  her  friends  proceeded  on  their  journey, 
and  came  to  Sweden,  to  Hakon  Gamle  (the  Old), 
where  she  and  her  son  remained  a  long  time,  and  had 
friendly  welcome. 

When  Gunhild,  the  mother  of  the  kings,  heard  that 
Astrid  and  her  son  Olaf  were  in  the  kingdom  of 
embassy  to  Swcdcu,  shc  again  sent  Hakon,  with  a  good  attend- 
ance, eastward,  to  Eric  king  of  Sweden,  with  pre- 
sents and  messages  of  friendship.  The  embassadors 
were  well  received  and  well  treated.  Hakon,  after  a 
time,  disclosed  his  errand  to  the  king,  saying  that 
Gunhild  had  sent  him  with  the  request  that  the  king 
would  assist  him  in  getting  hold  of  Olaf  Tryggvesson, 
to  conduct  him  to  Norway,  where  Gunhild  would 
bring  him  up.  The  king  gave  Hakon  people  with 
him,  and  he  rode  mth  them  to  Hakon  the  Old,  where 
Hakon  desired,  with  many  friendly  expressions,  that 
Olaf  should  go  with  him.  Hakon  the  Old  returned  a 
friendly  answer,  saying  that  it  depended  entirely  upon 
Olaf's  mother.  But  Astrid  would  on  no  account 
listen  to  the  proposal ;  and  the  messengers  had  to  re- 
turn  as  they  came,  and  to  tell  King  Eric  how  the 


Chapter 
IV. 

Hakon's 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  371 

matter  stood.  The  embassadors  then  prepared  to  re-  ^^^^  ^^- 
turn  home,  and  asked  the  king  for  some  assistance  to 
take  the  boy,  whether  Hakon  the  Old  would  or  not. 
The  king  gave  them  again  some  attendants ;  and 
when  they  came  to  Hakon  the  Old,  they  again  asked 
for  the  boy,  and  on  his  refusal  to  deliver  him  they 
used  high  words  and  threatened  violence.  But  one 
of  the  slaves,  Burst  by  name,  attacked  Hakon,  and 
was  going  to  kill  htm  ;  and  they  barely  escaped  from 
the  thralls  without  a  cudgelling,  and  proceeded  home 
to  Norway  to  tell  Gunhild  their  ill  success,  and  that 
they  had  only  seen  Olaf. 

Astrid  had  a  brother  called  Sigurd,  a  son  of  Eric  Chapter 
Biodaskalde,  who  had  long  been  abroad  in  Russia  ofsigurd 
with  King  Yaldemar,  and  was  there  in  great  consider-  ^"^''^'^"• 
ation.  Astrid  had  now  a  great  inclination  to  travel 
to  her  brother  there.  Hakon  the  Old  gave  her  good 
attendants,  and  what  was  needful  for  the  journey, 
and  she  set  out  with  some  merchants.  She  had  then 
been  two  years  with  Hakon  the  Old,  and  Olaf  was 
three  years  of  age.  As  they  sailed  out  into  the 
Baltic,  they  were  captured  by  vikings  of  Esthonia, 
who  made  booty  both  of  the  people  and  goods,  killing 
some,  and  dividing  others  as  slaves.  Olaf  was  sepa- 
rated from  his  mother,  and  an  Esthonian  man  called 
Klerkon  got  him  as  his  share  along  with  Thoralf  and 
Thorkils.  Klerkon  thought  that  Thoralf  was  too  old 
for  a  slave,  and  that  there  was  not  much  work  to  be 
got  out  of  him,  so  he  killed  him;  but  took  the  boys 
with  him,  and  sold  them  to  a  man  called  Kl^rk  for  a 
stout  and  good  ram.  A  third  man,  called  Eeas, 
bought  Olaf  for  a  good  cloak.  Reas  had  a  wife 
called  Rekon,  and  a  son  by  her  whose  name  Avas 
Rekoni.  Olaf  was  long  with  them,  was  treated  well, 
and  was  much  beloved  by  the  people.  Olaf  was  six 
years  in  Esthonia  in  this  banishment. 

B  B   2 


372 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 

Chapter 
VI. 
Olaf  is  set 
free  in 
Esthonia. 


Chapter 
VII. 

Klerkon 
killed  by 
Olaf. 


Sigurd,  the  son  of  Eric  (Astrid^s  brother),  came 
into  Esthonia  from  Novogorod,  on  King  Valdemar's 
business  to  collect  the  king's  taxes  and  rents.  Sigurd 
came  as  a  man  of  consequence,  Avith  many  followers 
and  great  magnificence.  In  the  market-place  he 
happened  to  observe  a  remarkably  handsome  boy ; 
and  as  he  could  distinguish  that  he  was  a  foreigner, 
he  asked  him  his  name  and  family.  He  answered 
him,  that  his  name  was  Olaf;  that  he  was  a  son  of 
Try ggve  Olafsson;  and  Astrid,  a  daughter  of  Eric 
Biodaskalde,  was  his  mother.  Then  Sigurd  knew  that 
the  boy  was  his  sister's  son,  and  asked  him  how  he 
came  there.  Olaf  told  him  minutely  all  his  adven- 
tures, and  Sigurd  told  him  to  follow  him  to  the  peasant 
Reas'.  When  he  came  there  he  bought  both  the  boys, 
Olaf  and  Thorgils,  and  took  them  with  him  to  Novo- 
gorod.  But,  for  the  first,  he  made  nothing  known  of 
Olaf 's  relationship  to  him,  but  treated  him  well. 

Olaf  Tryggvesson  Avas  one  day  in  the  market- 
place, where  there  was  a  great  number  of  people. 
He  recognised  Klaerkon  again,  who  had  killed  his 
foster-father  Thoralf  Lusiskiaeg.  Olaf  had  a  little 
axe  in  his  hand,  and  with  it  he  clove  KlaBrkon's  scull 
down  to  the  brain,  and  ran  home  to  his  lodging,  and 
told  his  friend  Sigurd  what  he  had  done.  Sigurd 
immediately  took  Olaf  to  Queen  AUogia's  house,  told 
her  what  had  happened,  and  begged  her  to  protect 
the  boy.  She  replied,  that  the  boy  appeared  far  too 
comely  to  allow  him  to  be  slain ;  and  she  ordered  her 
people  to  be  drawn  out  fully  armed.  In  Novogorod, 
the  sacredness  of  peace  is  so  respected,  that  it  is  law 
there  to  slay  whoever  puts  a  man  to  death  except  by 
judgment  of  law ;  and,  according  to  this  law  and 
■usage,  the  whole  people  stormed  and  sought  after  the 
boy.  It  was  reported  that  he  was  in  the  queen's  house, 
and  that  there  was  a  number  of  armed  men  there. 
When  this  was  told  to  the  king,  he  went  there  with  his 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  373 

people,  but  would  allow  no  bloodshed.  It  was  settled  saga^l 
at  last  in  peace,  that  the  king  should  name  the  fine  for 
the  murder ;  and  the  queen  paid  it.  Olaf  remained 
afterwards  with  the  queen,  and  was  much  beloved. 
It  is  a  law  at  Novogorod,  that  no  man  of  a  royal 
descent  shall  stay  there  without  the  king's  permis- 
sion. Sigurd  therefore  told  the  queen  of  what  family 
Olaf  was,  and  for  what  reason  he  had  come  to  Russia ; 
namely,  that  he  could  not  remain  with  safety  in  his 
own  country :  and  begged  her  to  speak  to  the  king 
about  it.  She  did  so,  and  begged  the  king  to  help  a 
king's  son  whose  fate  had  been  so  hard ;  and  in  con- 
sequence of  her  entreaty  the  king  promised  to  assist 
him,  and  accordingly  he  received  Olaf  into  his  court, 
and  treated  him  nobly,  and  as  a  king's  son.  Olaf  was 
nine  years  old  when  he  came  to  Russia,  and  he  re- 
mained nine  years  more  with  king  Yaldemar.  Olaf 
was  the  handsomest  of  men,  very  stout  and  strong, 
and  in  all  bodily  exercises  he  excelled  every  North- 
man that  ever  was  heard  of. 

Earl  Hakon,  Sigurd's  son,  was  with  the  Danish  Chapter 
king,  Harald  Gormson,  the  winter  after  he  had  fled  of  Hakon 
from  Norway  before  Gunhild's  sons.  During  the  f^^^  °^ 
winter  the  earl  had  so  much  care  and  sorrow  that 
he  took  to  bed,  and  passed  many  sleepless  nights, 
and  ate  and  drank  no  more  than  was  needful  to  sup- 
port his  strength.  Then  he  sent  a  private  message  to 
his  friends  north  in  Drontheim,  and  proposed  to  them 
that  they  should  kill  King  Erling,  if  they  had  an 
opportunity ;  adding,  that  he  would  come  to  them  in 
summer.  The  same  winter  the  Drontheim  people 
accordingly,  as  before  related,  killed  King  Erling. 
There  was  great  friendship  between  Earl  Hakon  and 
Gold  Harald,  and  Harald  told  Hakon  all  his  intentions. 
He  told  him  that  he  was  tired  of  a  ship-life,  and 
wanted  to  settle  on  the  land ;  and  asked  Hakon  if  he 
thought  his   brother  King    Harald  would   agree  to 

B  B   3 


374  CHRONICLE  of  the 

SAGA  VI.  divide  the  the  kingdom  with  him  if  he  asked  it.  ^'  I 
think,"  replied  Hakon,  ''  that  the  Danish  king  would 
not  deny  thy  right;  but  the  best  way  to  know  is  to 
speak  to  the  king  himself.  I  know  for  certain  so 
much,  that  you  will  not  get  a  kingdom  if  you  don't 
ask  for  it."  Soon  after  this  conversation  Gold  Ha- 
rald  spoke  to  the  king  about  the  matter,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  many  great  men  who  were  friends  to  both ; 
and  Gold  Harald  asked  King  Harald  to  divide  the 
kingdom  with  him  in  two  equal  parts,  to  which  his 
royal  birth  and  the  custom  of  the  Danish  monarchy 
gave  him  right.  The  king  was  highly  incensed  at 
this  demand,  and  said  that  no  man  had  asked  his 
father  Gorm  to  be  king  over  half  of  Denmark,  nor  yet 
his  grandfather  King  Hordeknut,  or  Sigurd  Orm,  or 
Ragnar  Lodbrok ;  and  he  was  so  exasperated  and 
angry,  that  nobody  ventured  to  speak  of  it  to  him. 

Chapter         Gold  Harald  was  now  worse  off  than  before ;  for  he 

IX  •  • 

Of  Goid      bad  got  no  kingdom,  and  had  got  the  king's  anger 

Harald.  }yj  ppoposiug  it.  Hc  wcut  as  usual  to  his  friend  Hakon, 
and  complained  to  him  of  his  fate,  and  asked  for 
good  advice,  and  if  he  could  help  him  to  get  his 
share  of  the  kingdom;  saying  that  he  would  rather 
try  force,  and  the  chance  of  war,  than  give  it  up. 

Hakon  advised  him  not  to  speak  to  any  man  so 
that  this  should  be  known;  ''  for,"  said  he,  "  it  con- 
cerns thy  life  :  and  rather  consider  with  thyself  what 
thou  art  man  enough  to  undertake ;  for  to  accomplish 
such  a  purpose  requires  a  bold  and  firm  man,  who 
will  neither  stick  at  good  nor  evil  to  do  that  which  is 
intended  ;  for  to  take  up  great  resolutions,  and  then  to 
lay  them  aside,  would  only  end  in  dishonour." 

Gold  Harald  replies,  —  ^'  I  will  so  carry  on  what  I 
begin,  that  I  will  not  hesitate  to  kill  Harald  witli  my 
OAATi  hands,  if  I  can  come  thereby  to  the  kingdom  he 
denies  me,  and  which  is  mine  by  right."  And  so 
they  separated. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  375 

Now  King  Harald  comes  also  to  Earl  Hakoi],  and  sagavi. 
tells  him  the  demand  on  his  kingdom  which  Gold 
Harald  had  made,  and  also  his  answer,  and  that  he 
would  upon  no  account  consent  to  diminish  his  king- 
dom. "And  if  Gold  Harald  persists  in  his  demand,  I 
will  have  no  hesitation  in  having  him  killed ;  for  I 
will  not  trust  him  if  he  does  not  renounce  it." 

The  earl  answered, — "  My  thoughts  are,  that  Ha- 
rald has  carried  his  demand  so  far  that  he  cannot 
now  let  it  drop,  and  I  expect  nothing  but  war  in  the 
land ;  and  that  he  will  be  able  to  gather  a  great  force, 
because  his  father  was  so  beloved.  And  then  it 
would  be  a  great  enormity  if  you  were  to  kill  your 
relation;  for,  as  things  now  stand,  all  men  would  say 
that  he  was  innocent.  But  I  am  far  from  saying, 
or  advising,  that  you  should  make  yourself  a  smaller 
king  than  your  father  Gorm  was,  who  in  many  ways 
enlarged,  but  never  diminished  his  kingdom." 

The  king  replies,  —  "  What  then  is  your  advice, — 
if  I  am  neither  to  divide  my  kingdom,  nor  to  get  rid 
of  my  fright  and  danger  ?" 

"  Let  us  meet  again  in  a  few  days,"  said  Earl  Ha- 
kon,  ''  and  I  Avill  then  have  considered  the  matter 
well,  and  will  give  you  my  advice  upon  it." 

The  king  then  went  away  with  his  people. 

Earl  Hakon  had  now  great  reflection,  and  many  opi-    Chapter 
nions  to  weigh,  and  he  let  only  very  few  be  in  the  house  councils 
with  him.     In  a  few  days  King  Harald  came  again  e^^]^^. 
to  the  earl  to  speak  with  him,  and  ask  if  he  had  kon  and 
yet  considered  fully  the  matter  they  had  been  talking  raiS^ 
of. 

"  I  have,"  said  the  earl,  "  considered  it  night  and 
day  ever  since,  and  find  it  most  advisable  that  you 
retain  and  rule  over  the  whole  of  your  kingdom  just 
as  your  father  left  it ;  but  that  you  obtain  for  your 
relation  Harald  another  kingdom,  that  he  also  may 
enjoy  honour  and  dignity." 

B  B   4 


376 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


(( 


"  What  kind  of  kingdom  is  that,'^  said  the  king, 
which  I  can  give  to  Harald,  that  I  may  possess  Den- 
mark entire  ?  " 

"  It  is  Norway,"  said  the  earl.  "  The  kings  who 
are  there  are  oppressive  to  the  people  of  the  country, 
so  that  every  man  is  against  them  who  has  tax  or 
service  to  pay." 

The  king  replies, — ^'Norway  is  a  large  country,  and 
the  people  fierce,  and  not  good  to  attack  with  a  foreign 
army.  We  found  that  sufficiently  when  Hakon  de- 
fended that  country ;  for  we  lost  many  people,  and 
gained  no  victory.  Besides,  Harald  the  son  of  Eric 
is  my  foster-son,  and  has  sat  on  my  knee." 

The  earl  answers,  — "  I  have  long  kno^vn  that  you 
have  helped  Gunhild's  sons  with  your  force,  and  a  bad 
return  you  have  got  for  it  ;  but  we  shall  get  at 
Norway  much  more  easily  than  by  fighting  for  it 
with  all  the  Danish  force.  Send  a  message  to  your 
foster-son  Harald,  Eric's  son,  and  offer  him  the  lands 
and  fiefs  which  Gunhild's  sons  held  before  in  Denmark. 
Appoint  him  a  meeting,  and  Gold  Harald  will  soon 
conquer  for  himself  a  kingdom  in  Norway  from  Ha- 
rald Grey  skin." 

The  king  replies,  that  it  would  be  called  a  bad 
business  to  deceive  his  own  foster-son. 

"  The  Danes,"  answered  the  earl,  "  will  rather  say 
that  it  was  better  to  kill  a  Norwegian  viking  than  a 
Danish,  and  your  own  brother's  son." 

They  spoke  so  long  over  the  matter,  that  they 
agreed  on  it. 

Thereafter  Gold  Harald  had  a  conference  with  Earl 
Hakon ;  and  the  earl  told  him  he  had  now  advanced 
his  business  so  far,  that  there  was  hope  a  kingdom 
might  stand  open  for  him  in  Norway.  "  We  can 
then  continue,"  said  he,  "  our  ancient  friendship,  and 
I  can  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  you  in  Norway.  Take 
first  that  kingdom.    King  Harald  is  now  very  old,  and 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  377 

has  but  one  son,  and  cares  but  little  about  him,  as  he    saga  vi. 
is  but  the  son  of  a  concubine." 

The  earl  talked  so  long  to  Gold  Harald  that  the 
project  pleased  him  well ;  and  the  king,  the  earl,  and 
Gold  Hakon  often  talked  over  the  business  together. 
The  Danish  king  then  sent  messengers  north  to 
Norway  to  Harald  Greyskin,  and  fitted  them  out 
magnificently  for  their  journey.  They  were  well  re- 
ceived by  Harald.  The  messengers  told  him  that 
Earl  Hakon  was  in  Denmark,  but  was  lying  danger- 
ously sick,  and  almost  out  of  his  senses.  They  then 
delivered  from  Harald,  the  Danish  king,  the  invitation 
to  Harald  Greyskin,  his  foster- son,  to  come  to  him,  and 
receive  investiture  of  the  fiefs  he  and  his  brothers 
before  him  had  formerly  held  in  Denmark ;  and  ap- 
pointing a  meeting  in  Jutland.  Harald  Greyskin  laid 
the  matter  before  his  mother  and  other  friends. 
Their  opinions  were  divided.  Some  thought  that  the 
expedition  was  not  without  its  danger,  on  account  of 
the  men  with  whom  they  had  to  deal ;  but  the  most 
were  in  haste  to  begin  the  journey,  for  at  that  time 
there  was  such  a  famine  in  Norway  that  the  kings 
could  scarcely  feed  their  men-at-arms :  and  on  this 
account  the  Fiord,  on  which  the  kings  resided,  usually 
got  the  name  of  Hardanger  (Hard-acre).  In  Denmark, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  had  been  tolerably  good  crops ; 
so  that  people  thought  that  if  King  Harald  got  fiefs, 
and  something  to  rule  over  there,  they  would  get 
some  assistance.  It  was  therefore  concluded,  before 
the  messengers  returned,  that  Harald  should  travel  to 
Denmark  to  the  Danish  king  in  summer,  and  accept 
the  conditions  King  Harald  ofi'ered. 

Harald  Greyskin  went  to  Denmark  in  summer  with    Chapter 

AT  7  T 

three  long- ships  ;  and  Herse  Asbiorn,  from  tlie  Fiord  Treachery 
district,  commanded  one  of  them.    Kins:  Harald  sailed  ^^  ^^"s 

.  .  ^  Harald 

fromViken  over  to  Lymfiord  in  Jutland,  and  landed  and  Eari 


378  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.    at  the  narrow  neck  of  land*  where  the  Danish  king 
Hakon  to-   was  expected.     Now  when  Gold  Harald  heard  of  this, 
mmid'^'^  he  sailed  there  w4th  nine  ships  which  he  had  fitted 
out  before  for  a  viking  cruise.     Earl  Hakon  had  also 
his  war  force  on  foot ;  namely,  twelve  large  ships,  all 
ready,  with  which  he  proposed  to  make  an  expedition. 
When  Gold  Harald  had  departed.  Earl  Hakon  says  to 
the  king,  "  Now  I  don't  know  if  we  are  not  sailing  on 
an  expedition,  and  yet  are  to  pay  the  penalty  of  not 
having  joined  it.     Gold  Harald  may  kill  Harald  Grey- 
skin,  and  get  the  kingdom  of  Norway;  but  you  must 
not  think  he  will  be  true  to  you,  although  you  do  help 
him  to  so  much  power,  for  he  told  me  in  winter  that 
he  would  take  your  life  if  he  could  find  opportunity 
to  do  so.     Now  I  will  win  Norway  for  you,  and  kill 
Gold  Harald,  if  you  will  promise   me  a  good  condi- 
tion under  you.     I  will  be  your  earl ;  swear  an  oath 
of  fidelity  to  you,  and,  with   your  help,  conquer  all 
Norway  for  you ;  hold  the  country  under  your  rule ; 
pay  you  the  scatt  and  taxes ;  and  you  will  be  a  greater 
king  than  your  father,  as  you  will  have  two  kingdoms 
under  you."     The  king  and  the  earl  agreed  upon  this, 
and  Hakon  set  off  to  seek  Gold  Harald. 
Chapter        Gold  Harald  cauic  to  the  neck  of  land  at  Lymfiord, 
H^aM^      and  immediately  challenged  Harald  Greyskin  to  battle ; 
Graafeid      and  altliough  Harald  had  fewer  men,  he  went  imme- 
neck  of       diately  on  the  land,  prepared  for  battle,  and  drew  up 
land  at        |^^g  trooDS.      Bcforc  the  lines  came  too^ether  Harald 
Greyskin  urged  on  his  men,  and  told  them  to  draw 
their  swords.     He  himself  advanced  the  foremost  of 
the  troop,  hewing  down  on  each  side.     So  says  Glum 
Geirason,  in  Greyskin's  lay :  — 

*  Lymfiord,  running  in  from  the  Baltic  across  the  peninsula  of  Jut- 
landj  is  only  divided  by  a  narrow  neck  of  land  from  the  North  Sea. 
This  neck  has  within  these  fifteen  years  been  washed  away,  and  there  is 
now  a  channel  into  the  Baltic  by  this  new  passage  for  small  craft. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  379 

'*  Brave  were  thy  words  in  battle-field,  saga  vi. 

Thou  stainer  of  the  snow-white  shield  !  — 
Thou  gallant  war-god  !   With  thy  voice 
Thou  couldst  the  dying  man  rejoice : 
The  cheer  of  Harald  could  impart 
Courage  and  life  to  every  heart. 
While  swinging  high  the  blood-smeared  sword. 
By  arm  and  voice  we  knew  our  lord." 

There  fell  Harald  Greyskin.  So  says  Glum  Geira- 
son :  — 

"  On  Lymfiord's  strand,  by  the  tide's  flow. 

Stern  Fate  has  laid  King  Harald  low  ; 

The  gallant  viking-cruiser  —  he 

Who  loved  the  isle-encircling  sea. 
.  The  generous  ruler  of  the  land 

Fell  at  the  narrow  Lymfiord  strand. 

Enticed  by  Hakon's  cunning  speech 

To  his  death-bed  on  Lymfiord's  beach." 

The  most  of  King  Harald's  men  fell  with  him. 
There  also  fell  Herse  Asbiorn. 

This  happened  fifteen  years*  after  the  death  of 
HakonAthelstan's  foster-son,  and  thirteen  years  after 
that  of  Sigurd  earl  of  Lade.  The  priest  Are  Frode 
says  that  Earl  Hakon  was  thirteen  years  earl  over 
his  father's  dominions  in  Drontheim  district  before 
the  fall  of  Harald  Greyskin  ;  but,  for  the  last  six 
years  of  Harald  Greyskin's  life,  Are  Erode  says  the 
Earl  Hakon  and  Gunhild's  sons  fought  against  each 
other,  and  drove  each  other  out  of  the  land  in 
turns. 

Soon  after  Harald  Greyskin's  fall.  Earl  Hakon  came  xiv. 
up  to  Gold  Harald,  and  the  earl  immediately  gave  ^iatt^a^th. 
battle  to  Harald.  Hakon  gained  the  victory,  and 
Harald  was  made  prisoner  ;  but  Hakon  had  him  im- 
mediately hanged  on  a  gallows.  Hakon  then  went  to 
the  Danish  king,  and  no  doubt  easily  settled  with  him 
for  the  killing  his  relative  Gold  Harald. 

*   This  brings  the  reign  of  Harald  Greyskin  to  about  the  year  975. 


380  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

sA^A^vi.        Soon  after  King  Harald  Gormson  ordered  a  levy  of 

Chapter    nien  over  all  his  kingdom,  and  sailed  with  600  ships. 

Division  of  There  were  with  him  Earl  Hakon,  Harald  Graenske  a 

the  country.  ^^^  ^.p  j^^^^-^g  Qndrod,  and  many  other  great  men  who 

had  fled  from  their  udal  estates  in  Norway  on  account 
of  Gunhild's  sons.  The  Danish  king  sailed  with  his  fleet 
from  the  south  to  Viken,  where  all  the  people  of  the 
country  surrendered  to  him.  When  he  came  to  Tuns- 
berg  swarms  of  people  joined  him ;  and  King  Harald 
gave  to  Earl  Hakon  the  command  of  all  the  men  who 
came  to  him  in  Norway,  and  gave  him  the  govern- 
ment over  Rog aland,  Hordaland,  Sogn,  Fiorde  dis- 
trict, South  More,  Raumsdal,  and  North  More.  These 
seven  districts  gave  King  Harald  to  Earl  Hakon  to  rule 
over,  with  the  same  rights  as  Harald  Haarfager  gave 
with  them  to  his  sons;  only  with  the  difl'erence,  that 
Hakon  should  there,  as  well  as  in  Drontheim,  have 
the  king's  land-estates  and  land-tax,  and  use  the 
king's  money  and  goods  according  to  his  necessities 
whenever  there  was  war  in  the  country.  King  Ha- 
rald also  gave  Harald  Graenske  Yingulmark,  West- 
fold,  and  Agder  all  the  way  to  the  Naze,  together  with 
the  title  of  king ;  and  let  him  have  these  dominions 
with  the  same  rights  as  his  family  in  former  times 
had  held  them,  and  as  Harald  Haarfager  had  given 
with  them  to  his  sons.  Harald  Graenske  was  then 
eighteen  years  old,  and  he  became  afterwards  a  cele- 
brated man.  Harald  king  of  Denmark  returned  home 
thereafter  with  all  his  army. 
CHAPTEa  Earl  Hakon  proceeded  northwards  along  the  coast 
Gunhild's  with  his  force;  and  when  Gunhild  and  her.  sons  got 
thecountry.  "^^^  tldiugs  they  procccdcd  to  gather  troops,  but 
were  ill  ofl*  for  men.  Then  they  took  the  same  reso- 
lution as  before,  to  sail  out  to  sea  with  such  men  as 
would  follow  them  away  to  the  westward.  They 
came  first  to  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  remained  there 
a   while.      There   were    in   Orkney    then    the    Earls 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


381 


Lodver,  Arnvid,  Lied,  and  Skule*,  the  sons  of  Thor-    sagavi. 
fin  HausaklifFer. 

Earl  Hakon  now  brought  all  the  country  under 
him,  and  remained  all  winter  in  Drontheim.  Einar 
Skalaglam  speaks  of  his  conquests  in  Vellekla :  — 

"  Norway's  great  watchman,  Harald,  now 
May  bind  the  silk  snood  on  his  brow  — 
Seven  provinces  he  seized.     The  realm 
Prospers  with  Hakon  at  the  helm." 

As  Hakon  the  earl  proceeded  this  summer  along 
the  coast  subjecting  all  the  people  to  him,  he  ordered 
that  over  all  his  dominions  the  temples  and  sacrifices 
should  be  restored,  and  continued  as  of  old.  So  it  is 
said  in  the  Vellekla : — 

'^  Hakon  the  earl,  so  good  and  wise. 
Let  all  the  ancient  temples  rise;  — 
Thor's  temples  raised  with  fostering  hand, 
That  had  been  ruined  through  the  land. 
His  valiant  champions,  who  were  slain 
On  battle-fields  across  the  main. 
To  Thor,  the  thunder-god,  may  tell 
How  for  the  gods  all  turns  out  well. 
The  hardy  warrior  now  once  more 
Offers  the  sacrifice  of  gore ; 
The  shield-bearer  in  Loke's  game  -|- 
Invokes  once  more  great  Asa's  name ;  | 
The  green  earth  gladly  yields  her  store. 
As  she  was  wont  in  days  of  yore. 
Since  the  brave  breaker  of  the  spears 
The  holy  shrines  again  uprears. 
The  earl  has  conquered  with  strong  hand 
All  that  lies  north  of  Viken  land : 
In  battle  storm,  and  iron  rain, 
Hakon  spreads  wide  his  sword's  domain." 

The  first  Avinter  that  Hakon  ruled  over  Norway  the 
herrings  set  in  every  where  through  the  fiords  to  the 
land,  and  the  seasons  ripened  to  a  good  crop  all  that 
had  been  sown.     The  people,  therefore,  laid  in  seed 

*  The  ancient  family  of  ScoUay  in  Orkney  may  probably  derive  their 
name  from  this  chief, 
t    Loke's  game  is  war. 
%   The  name  of  Odin. 


382  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  for  the  next  year,  and  got  their  lands  sowed,  and  had 
hope  of  good  times. 

Chapter  King  Ragnfrid  and  King  Gudrod,  both  sons  of 
Earl  Ha-  Gunhild  and  Eric,  were  now  the  only  sons  of  Gun- 
kon's  battle  j^^jj  rcmainino^  in  life.     So  says  Glum  Geirason  in 

withRagn-    ^  .  .     ,     .       ^  ^ 

frid.  Greysknr  s  lay :  — 

"  When  in  the  battle's  bloody  strife 
The  sword  took  noble  Harald's  life. 
Half  of  my  fortunes  with  him  fell : 
But  his  two  brothers,  I  know  well. 
My  loss  would  soon  repair,  should  they 
Again  in  Norway  bear  the  sway. 
And  to  their  promises  should  stand. 
If  they  return  to  rule  the  land." 

Ragnfrid  began  his  course  in  the  spring  after  he 
had  been  a  year  in  the  Orkney  Islands.  He  sailed 
from  thence  to  Norway,  and  had  with  him  fine  troops, 
and  large  ships.  When  he  came  to  Norway  he 
learnt  that  Earl  Hakon  was  in  Drontheim  ;  therefore 
he  steered  northwards  around  Stad,  and  plundered 
in  South  More.  Some  people  submitted  to  him;  for 
it  often  happens,  when  parties  of  armed  men  scour 
over  a  country,  that  those  who  are  nearest  the  danger 
seek  help  where  they  think  it  may  be  expected.  As 
soon  as  Earl  Hakon  heard  the  news  of  disturbance  in 
More,  he  fitted  out  ships,  sent  the  war-token  through 
the  land,  made  ready  in  all  haste,  and  proceeded  out 
of  the  fiord.  He  had  no  difiiculty  in  assembling 
men.  Ragnfrid  and  Earl  Hakon  met  at  the  north 
corner  of  More ;  and  Hakon,  who  had  most  men,  but 
fewer  ships,  began  the  battle.  The  combat  was 
severe,  but  heaviest  on  Hakon's  side ;  and,  as  the 
custom  then  was,  they  fought  bow  to  bow,  and  there 
was  a  current  in  the  sound  which  drove  all  the  ships 
in  upon  the  land.  The  earl  ordered  to  row  with  the 
oars  to  the  land  where  landing  seemed  easiest.  When 
the  ships  Avere  all  grounded,  the  earl  with  all  his  men 
left  them,  and  drew  them  up  so  far  that  the  enemy 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  383 

might  not  launch  them  down  again,  and  then  drew  saga  vi. 
up  his  men  on  a  grass  field,  and  challenged  Ragnfrid 
to  land.  Ragnfrid  and  his  men  laid  their  vessels  in 
along  the  land,  and  they  shot  at  each  other  a  long 
time  ;  but  upon  the  land  Ragnfrid  would  not  venture : 
and  so  they  separated.  Ragnfrid  sailed  with  his  fleet 
southwards  around  Stad  ;  for  he  was  much  afraid  the 
Avhole  forces  of  the  country  would  swarm  around 
Hakon.  Hakon,  on  his  part,  was  not  inclined  to  try 
again  a  battle,  for  he  thought  the  dilFerence  between 
their  ships  in  size  was  too  great;  so  in  harvest  he 
went  north  to  Drontheim,  and  staid  there  all  win- 
ter. King  Ragnfrid  consequently  had  all  the  country 
soutli  of  Stad  at  his  mercy;  namely.  Fiord  district, 
Hordaland,  Sogn,  Rogaland;  and  he  had  many  peo- 
ple about  him  all  winter.  When  spring  approached 
he  ordered  out  the  people,  and  collected  a  large  force. 
By  going  about  the  districts  he  got  many  men,  ships, 
and  warlike  stores  sent  as  he  required. 

Towards  spring  Earl  Hakon  ordered  out  all  the    Chapter 
men  north  in   the   country,    and  got   many   people  Another ' 
from  Halo2:aland  and  Naumadal;  so  that  fromBvrda'^  battle  be- 
to  Stad  he  had  men  from  all  the  sea  coast.     It  was  Hakon  and 
said  for  certain   that   he  had   men  from   four  great  in^Sogn. 
districts,  and  that  seven  earls  followed  him,   and  a 
matchless  number  of  men.     So  it  is  said  in  the  Vel- 
lekla :  — 

"  Hakon,  defender  of  the  land, 
Arnned  in  the  North  his  warrior-band; 
To  Sogne's  shore  f  his  force  he  led. 
And  from  all  quarters  thither  sped 
War-ships  and  men  ;   and  haste  was  made 
By  the  young  god  of  the  sword-blade_, 
The  hero-viking  of  the  wave. 
His  wide  domain  from  foes  to  save. 


*   Byrda,  now  Boro,  in  the  parish  of  Biorn  Isles^  on  the  coast_,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Namsen  river,  or  Naumadal. 
t   Sogne  fiord. 


384  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAAO  VI.  With  shining  keels  seven  kings  sailed  on 

To  meet  this  raven-feeding  one. 

When  the  clash  came^  the  stunning  sound 
Was  heard  in  Norway's  farthest  bound; 
And  sea-borne  corpses^  floating  far, 
Brought  round  the  Naze  new^s  from  the  war." 

Earl  Hakon  sailed  then  with  his  fleet  southwards 
around  Stad;  and  when  he  heard  that  King  Ragnfrid 
with  his  army  had  gone  towards  Sogn,  he  turned 
there  also  with  his  men  to  meet  him:  and  there 
Rao^nfrid  and  Hakon  met.  Hakon  came  to  the  land 
with  his  ships,  marked  out  a  battle-field  with  hazel 
branches  for  King  Ragnfrid  *,  and  took  ground  for  his 
own  men  in  it.     So  it  is  told  in  the  Yellekla:  — 

"  In  the  fierce  battle  Ragnfrid  then 
Met  the  grim  foe  of  Vendland  men;-t 
And  many  a  hero  of  great  name 
Fell  in  the  sharp  sword's  bloody  game. 
The  wielder  of  fell  Narve's  weapon,  % 
The  conquering  hero,  valiant  Hakon, 
Had  laid  his  war-ships  on  the  strand. 
And  ranged  his  warriors  on  the  land." 

There  was  a  great  battle ;  but  Earl  Hakon,  having 
by  far  the  most  people,  gained  the  victory.  It  took 
place  on  the  Thing-ness  where  Sogn  and  Hordaland 
meet.  § 

King  Ragnfrid  fled  to  his  ships,  after  300  of  his 
men  had  fallen.     So  it  is  said  in  the  Yellekla  :  — 

^'  Sharp  was  the  battle-strife,  I  ween, — 
Deadly  and  close  it  must  have  been. 
Before,  upon  the  bloody  plain. 
Three  hundred  corpses  of  the  slain 


*  This  marking  out  a  champ  clos  for  battle  appears  to  have  been 
common  among  the  Northmen. 

t  Earl  Hakon,  from  his  victories  over  them,  is  called  the  foe  of  the 
Vendland  men. 

;|;  Narve  was  the  son  of  Loke ;  and  the  sword  was  called  Narve's 
weapon. 

§  Things  were  generally  held  on  nesses  or  tongues  accessible  by 
water,  as  roads  were  not  formed. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  385 

Were  stretched  for  the  black  raven's  prey ;  saga  vl 

And  when  the  conquerors  took  their  way  

To  the  sea-shore,  they  had  to  tread 
O'er  piled-up  heaps  of  foemen  dead." 

After  this  battle  King  Ragnfrid  fled  from  Norway ; 
but  Earl  Hakon  restored  peace  to  the  country,  and 
allowed  the  great  army  which  had  followed  him  in 
summer  to  return  home  to  the  north  country,  and 
he  himself  remained  in  the  south  that  harvest  and 
winter. 

Earl  Hakon  married  a  girl  called  Thora,  a  daughter    Chapter 
of  the  powerful  Skage  Skoptason,  and  very  beautiful  Ead  Ha- 
she  was.      They  had  two  sons,   Swend  and  Heming,  ^^^'^  "mar- 
aud a  daughter  called  Bergliot,  who  was  afterwards 
married  to  Einar  Tambarskielver.     Earl  Hakon  was 
much  addicted  to  women,  and  had  many  children ; 
among  others  a  daughter  Ragnhild,   whom  he  mar- 
ried to  Skopte   Skagason,  a  brother  of  Thora.     The 
Earl   loved   Thora   so   much,   that    he  held  Thora's 
family  in  higher  respect  than  any  other  people,  and 
Skopte  his  brother-in-law  in  particular ;  and  he  gave 
him  many  great  fiefs  in  More.     Whenever  they  were 
on  a  cruise  together,  Skopte  must  lay  his  ship  nearest 
to  the  earl's,  and  no  other  ship  was  allowed  to  come 
in  between. 

One   summer  that   Earl  Hakon  was  on   a  cruise,    Chapter 

XX 

there  was  a  ship  Avith  him  of  which  Thorleif  the  skopte  the 
Wise  was  steersman.  In  it  was  also  Eric,  Earl  Ha-  ^^^Jy^^""'^"  * 
kon's  son,  then  about  ten  or  eleven  years  old.  Now  in 
the  evenings,  as  they  came  into  harbour,  Eric  would 
not  allow  any  ship  but  his  to  lie  nearest  to  the  earl's. 
But  when  they  came  to  the  south,  to  More,  they  met 
Skopte,  the  earl's  brother-in-law,  with  a  well-manned 
ship  ;  and  as  they  rowed  towards  the  fleet,  Skopte 
called  out  that  Thorleif  should  move  out  of  the  har- 
bour to  make  room  for  him,  and  should  go  to  the 
roadstead.  Eric"  in  haste  took  up  the  matter,  and 
VOL.  I.  c  c 


386  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.    ordered  Skopte  to  go  himself  to  the  roadstead.  When 
Earl  Hakon  heard  that  his  son  thought  himself  too 
great  to  give  place  to  Skopte,  he  called  to  them  im- 
mediately that  they  should  haul  out  from  their  berth, 
threatening  them  with  chastisement  if  they  did  not. 
When  Thorleif  heard  this,  he  ordered  his  men  to  slip 
their  land-cable,  and  they  did  so ;  and  Skopte  laid 
his   vessel  next   to  the    earl's,    as   he   used   to    do. 
When  they  came  together,  Skopte  brought  the  earl 
all  the  news  he  had  gathered,  and  the  earl  communi- 
cated  to    Skopte   all  the   news  he    had  heard ;    and 
Skopte  was   therefore  called   the    Newsman.       The 
winter  after  Eric  was  with   his   foster-father  Thorleif, 
and  early  in  spring  he  gathered  a  crew  of  followers, 
and  Thorleif  gave  him  a  boat  of  fifteen  benches  of 
rowers,  with   ship   furniture,  tents,  and  ship  provi- 
sions ;  and  Eric  set  out  from  the  fiord,  and  south- 
wards to  More.     Newsman  Skopte  happened  also  to 
be  going  with  a  fully  manned  boat  of  fifteen  rowers' 
benches  from  one  of  his  farms  to  another,  and  Eric 
went  against  him  to  have  a  battle.    Skopte  was  slain, 
but  Eric  granted  life  to  those  of  his  men  who  were 
still  on  their  legs.     So  says  Eyolf  Dadaskald  in  the 
Banda  lay :  — 

"  At  eve  the  youth  went  out 
To  meet  the  warrior  stout  — 
To  meet  stout  Skopte  —  he 
Whose  war-ship  roves  the  sea. 
Like  force  was  on  each  side. 
But  in  the  whirling  tide 
The  young  wolf  Eric  slew 
Skopte,  and  all  his  crew : 
And  he  was  a  gallant  one. 
Dear  to  the  Earl  Hakon. 
Up,  youth  of  steel-hard  breast  — 
No  time  hast  thou  to  rest ! 
Thy  ocean  wings  spread  wide  — 
Speed  o'er  the  foaming  tide  ! 
Speed  on  —  speed  on  thy  way ! 
For  here  thou  canst  not  stay."     • 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  387 

Eric  sailed  along  the  land  and  came  to  Denmark,  saga  vl 
and  went  to  King  Harald  Gormeson,  and  staid  with 
him  all  winter.  In  spring  the  Danish  king  sent  him 
north  to  Norway,  and  gave  him  an  earldom,  and  the 
government  of  Yingulmark  and  Raumarige,  on  the 
same  terms  as  the  small  scatt-paying  kings  had 
formerly  held  these  domains.  So  says  Eyolf  Dada- 
skald :  — 

"  South  through  ocean's  spray 
His  dragon  flew  away 
To  Gormson's  hall  renowned^ 
Where  the  bowl  goes  bravely  round. 
And  the  Danish  king  did  place 
This  youth  of  noble  race 
Where,  shield  and  sword  in  hand. 
He  would  aye  defend  his  land." 

Eric  became  afterwards  a  great  chief. 

All  this  time  Olaf  Tryggvesson  was  in  Russia,  and    Chapter 
highly  esteemed  by  King  Valdemar,  and  beloved  by  oiaf 
the  queen.     King  Yaldemar  made  him  chief  over  the 
men-at-arms  whom  he  sent  out  to  defend  the  land,  foumey 
So  says  Hallarstein :  —  RuTsia, 

'^  The  hater  of  the  niggard  hand,  * 
The  chief  who  loves  the  Northman's  land, 
Was  only  twelve  years  old  when  he 
His  Russian  war -ships  put  to  sea. 
The  wain  that  ploughs  the  sea  was  then 
Loaded  with  war-gear  by  his  men  — 
With  swords,  and  spears,  and  helms ;  and  deep 
Out  to  the  sea  his  good  ships  sweep." 

Olaf  had  several  battles,  and  was  lucky  as  a  leader 
of  troops.  He  himself  kept  a  great  many  men-at- 
arms  at  his  own  expense  out  of  the  pay  the  king 
gave  him.  Olaf  was  very  generous  to  his  men,  and 
therefore  very  popular.  But  then  it  came  to  pass, 
what  so  often  happens  when  a  foreigner  is  raised  to 

*  The  original  figure  of  expression  is,  "^  hater  of  the  fire  of  the  bow's 
seat:"  viz  the  seat  of  the  bow  is  the  hand  ;  the  fire  of  the  hand  the 
gold-rings  worn  on  the  fingers ;  the  hater  of  this  fire  he  who  does  not 
care  for  it,  but  parts  with  it  readily  —  the  generous  man, 

c  c  2 


Tryg- 
gvesson's 


388  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  higher  power  and  dignity  than  men  of  the  country, 
that  many  envied  him  because  he  was  so  favoured  by 
the  king,  and  also  not  less  so  by  the  queen.  They 
hinted  to  the  king  that  he  should  take  care  not  to 
make  Olaf  too  powerful,  —  "  for  such  a  man  may  be 
dangerous  to  you,  if  he  were  to  allow  himself  to  be 
used  for  the  purpose  of  doing  you  or  your  kingdom 
harm ;  for  he  is  extremely  expert  in  all  exercises  and 
feats,  and  very  popular.  We  do  not,  indeed,  know 
what  it  is  he  can  have  to  talk  of  so  often  with  the 
queen."  It  was  then  the  custom  among  great  mo- 
narchs  that  the  queen  should  have  half  of  the  court  at- 
tendants, and  she  supported  them  at  her  own  expense 
out  of  the  scatt  and  revenue  provided  for  her  for  that 
purpose.  It  was  so  also  at  the  court  of  King  Valde- 
mar  that  the  queen  had  an  attendance  as  large  as 
the  king,  and  they  vied  with  each  other  about  the 
finest  men,  each  wanting  to  have  such  in  their  own 
service.  It  so  fell  out  that  the  king  listened  to  such 
speeches,  and  became  somewhat  silent  and  blunt  to- 
wards Olaf.  When  Olaf  observed  this,  he  told  it  to 
the  queen ;  and  also  that  he  had  a  great  desire  to 
travel  to  the  Northern  land,  where  his  family  formerly 
had  power  and  kingdoms,  and  where  it  was  most 
likely  he  would  advance  himself.  The  queen  wished 
him  a  prosperous  journey,  and  said  he  would  be 
found  a  brave  man  wherever  he  might  be.  Olaf 
then  made  ready,  went  on  board,  and  set  out  to  sea 
in  the  Baltic.  So  says  Marcus  Skeggiason  in  "  Eek- 
stefen :"  — 

"  The  Russian  cutters  start  from  land^ 
Under  the  generous  chief's  commando- 
Out  to  the  open  sea  they  run^ 
Under  the  gallant  Tryggve's  son  : 
And,  ranging  all  the  M'estern  coast, 
Olaf  the  brave,  who  led  the  host, 
Made  many  a  sturdy  foeman  feel 
The  sharp  edge  of  his  biting  steeL" 


KINGS    OF    NOKWAY.  389 

As  he   was  coming   from   the    east  he  made  the    ^^^^  ^^- 
island    of   Bornholm,   where   he  landed    and    plun- 
dered.    The   country  people  hastened  down  to  the 
strand,  and  gave  him  battle ;    but  Olaf  gained  th  e 
victory,  and  a  large  booty. 

While  Olaf  lay  at  Bornholm  there  came  on  bad  ^^^^^^ 
weather,  storm,  and  a  heavy  sea,  so  that  his  ships  oiaf 
could  not  lie  there ;  and  he  sailed  southwards  under  gvYsfon's 
Vendland  *,  where  they  found  a  good  harbour.  They  marriage, 
conducted  themselves  very  peacefully,  and  remained 
some  time.  In  Yendland  there  was  then  a  king 
called  Burislaf,  who  had  three  daughters,  —  Geyra, 
Gunhild,  and  Astrid.  The  king's  daughter  Geyra 
had  the  power  and  government  in  that  part  where 
Olaf  and  his  people  landed,  and  Dixin  was  the  name 
of  the  man  who  most  usually  advised  Queen  Geyra. 
Now  when  they  heard  that  unknown  people  were 
come  to  the  country,  who  were  of  distinguished  ap- 
pearance, and  conducted  themselves  peaceably,  Dixin 
repaired  to  them  with  a  message  from  Queen  Geyra, 
inviting  the  strangers  to  take  up  their  winter  abode 
with  her;  for  the  summer  was  almost  spent,  and  the 
Aveather  was  severe  and  stormy.  Now  when  Dixin 
came  to  the  place  he  soon  saw  that  the  leader  was  a 
distinguished  man,  both  from  family  and  personal 
appearance,  and  he  told  Olaf  the  queen's  invitation 
with  the  most  friendly  message.  Olaf  willingly  ac- 
cepted the  invitation,  and  went  in  harvest  to  Queen 
Geyra.  They  liked  each  other  exceedingly,  and  Olaf 
courted  Queen  Geyra ;  and  it  was  so  settled  that  Olaf 
married  her  the  same  winter,  and  was  ruler,  along  with 
Queen  Geyra,  over  her  dominions.  Halfred  Yandrse- 
daskald  tells  of  these  matters  in  the  lay  he  composed 
about  King  Olaf:  — 

*  Vindland  or  Vendland — the  land  of  the  Vends  or  Vands,  the 
Sclavonic  people  who  then  occupied  the  coast  from  the  Vistula  to  Hol- 
stein.  The  Vendland  of  the  saga  is  the  present  Mecklenburg,  Pome- 
rania,  and  East  Prussia. 

c  c  3 


890 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chaptek 
XXIII. 
Earl  Ha- 
kon  pays 
no  scatt 


Chapter 
XXIV. 

King  Ha- 
rald's  levy 
to  oppose 
the  Em- 
peror 
Otto's  de- 
mand to 
introduce 
Chris- 
tianity in 
his  king^ 
dom. 


Chapter 
XXV. 

Olaf 
Tryg- 
gvesson's 
war  expe- 
dition. 


*'  Why  should  the  deeds  the  hero  did 
In  Bornholm  and  the  East  be  hid  ? 
His  deadly  weapon  Olaf  bold 
Dyed  red  :   why  should  not  this  be  told  ?  " 

Earl  Hakon  ruled  over  Norway,  and  paid  no  scatt ; 
because  the  Danish  king  gave  him  all  the  scatt  re- 
venue that  belonged  to  the  king  in  Norway,  for  the 
expense  and  trouble  he  had  in  defending  the  country 
against  Gunhild's  sons. 

The  Emperor  Otto  was  at  that  time  in  the  Saxon 
country,  and  sent  a  message  to  King  Harald,  the 
Danish  king,  that  he  must  take  on  the  true  faith  and 
be  baptized,  he  and  all  his  people  whom  he  ruled ; 
"  otherwise,"  says  the  emperor,  "  we  will  march 
against  him  with  an  army."  The  Danish  king  or- 
dered the  land  defence  to  be  fitted  out,  the  Danish 
wall*  to  be  well  fortified,  and  his  ships  of  war  rigged 
out.  He  sent  a  message  also  to  Earl  Hakon  in  Nor- 
way to  come  to  him  early  in  spring,  and  with  as 
many  men  as  he  could  possibly  raise.  In  spring  Earl 
Hakon  levied  an  army  over  the  whole  country  which 
was  very  numerous,  and  with  it  he  sailed  to  meet  the 
Danish  king.  The  king  received  him  in  the  most 
honourable  manner.  Many  other  chiefs  also  joined 
the  Danish  king  with  their  men,  so  that  he  had  ga- 
thered a  very  large  army. 

Olaf  Tryggvesson  had  been  all  winter  in  Yendland, 
as  before  related,  and  went  the  same  winter  to  the 
baronies  in  Vendland  which  had  formerly  been  un- 
der Queen  Geyra,  but  had  withdrawn  themselves 
from  obedience  and  payment  of  taxes.  There  Olaf 
made  war,  killed  many  people,  burnt  out  others,  took 
much  property,  and  laid  all  of  them  under  subjection 


*  Danaverki.  The  Danish  work  was  a  wall  of  earth,  stones,  and 
wood,  with  a  deep  ditch  in  front,  and  a  castle  at  every  hundred  fathoms, 
between  the  rivers  Eyder  and  Sle,  constructed  by  Harald  Blaatand  to 
oppose  the  progress  of  Charlemagne.      Some  traces  of  it  still  exist. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  891 

to  him,  and  then  went  back  to  his  castle.  Early  in  saga  vi. 
spring  Olaf  rigged  out  his  ships  and  set  off  to  sea.  He 
sailed  to  Scania*,  and  made  a  landing.  The  people 
of  the  country  assembled,  and  gave  him  battle ;  but 
King  Olaf  conquered,  and  made  a  great  booty.  He 
then  sailed  eastward  to  the  island  of  Gotland,  where 
he  captured  a  merchant  vessel  belonging  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Jemteland.f  They  made  a  brave  defence  ;  but 
the  end  of  it  was  that  Olaf  cleared  the  deck,  killed 
all  the  men,  and  took  all  the  goods.  He  had  a  third 
battle  in  Gotland,  in  which  he  also  gained  the  vic- 
tory, and  made  a  great  booty.  So  says  Halfred  Yan- 
drsedaskald :  — 

"  The  king,  so  fierce  in  battle-fray, 

First  made  the  Vendland  men  give  way: 
The  Gotlanders  must  tremble  next; 
And  Scania's  shores  are  sorely  vexed 
By  the  sharp  pelting  arrow  shower 
The  hero  and  his  warriors  pour; 
And  then  the  Jemtland  men  must  fly, 
Scared  by  his  well-known  battle-cry." 

The  Emperor  Otto  assembled  a  great  army  from    Chapter 
Saxonland  J,  Frakland  § ,  Friesland  ||,  and  Vendland.  ^  xhe  Em- 
King  Burislaf  followed  him  with  a  large  army,  and  in  p^^or  otto 
it  was  his    son-in-law,   Olaf  Tryggvesson.     The  em-  Hakon 
peror  had  a  great  body  of  horsemen,  and  still  greater  i^attle^at 
of  foot  people,  and  a  great    army  from  Holstein.  **  ^iie  Danish 
Harald,  the  Danish  king,  sent  Earl  Hakon  with  the  schieswig. 

*  The  large  part  of  Sweden,  or  of  the  country  on  the  Swedish 
side  of  the  Sound,  called  Scania,  belonged  in  the  earliest  times  to  the 
kingdom  of  Denmark. 

I  Jemteland  is  the  province  still  so  called  on  the  Swedish  side  of  a 
ridge  of  hills,  or  keel  of  the  peninsula,  at  the  head  of  the  Bothnian 
Gulph. 


Saxonland,  or  Germany. 


§    Frakkaland,  or  Frankland,  is  France. 
II    Friesland,  the  low  countries  about  the  Ems. 

^  Vendland    is    the    present  Pomerania  and  Mecklenburg  down  to 
the  Gulph  of  Lubeck. 

**   Holsetta-land  is  Holstein. 

C  C    4 


392  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  army  of  Northmen  that  followed  him  southwards  to 
the  Danish  wall,  to  defend  his  kingdom  on  that  side. 
So  it  is  told  in  the  "  Yellekla :  "— 

^'  Over  the  foaming  salt  sea  spray 
The  Norse  sea-horses  took  their  way. 
Racing  across  the  ocean-plain 
Southwards  to  Denmark's  green  domain. 
The  gallant  chief  of  Hordaland  * 
Sat  at  the  helm  with  steady  hand. 
In  casque  and  shield,  his  men  to  bring 
From  Dovre  to  his  friend  the  king. 
He  steered  his  war-ships  o'er  the  wave 
To  help  the  Danish  king  to  save 
Mordalf,  who,  with  a  gallant  band. 
Was  hastening  from  the  Jutes'  wild  land. 
Across  the  forest  frontier  rude. 
With  toil  and  pain  through  the  thick  wood. 
Glad  was  the  Danish  king,  I  trow. 
When  he  saw  Hakon*s  galley's  prow. 
The  monarch  straightway  gave  command 
To  Hakon,  with  a  steel-clad  band. 
To  man  the  Dane-work's  rampart  stout. 
And  keep  the  foreign  foemen  out." 

The  Emperor  Otto  came  with  his  army  from  the 
south  to  the  Danish  wall,  but  Earl  Hakon  defended 
the  rampart  with  his  men.  The  Dane -work  was  con- 
structed in  this  way :  —  Two  fiords  run  into  the  land, 
one  on  each  side ;  and  in  the  farthest  bight  of  these 
fiords  the  Danes  had  made  a  great  wall  of  stone, 
turf,  and  timber,  and  dug  a  deep  and  broad  ditch  in 
front  of  it,  and  had  also  built  a  castle  over  each  gate 
of  it.  There  was  a  hard  battle  there,  of  which  the 
"  Yellekla  "  speaks :  — 

^'  Thick  the  storm  of  arrows  flew. 
Loud  was  the  din,  black  was  the  view 
Of  close  array  of  shield  and  spear 
Of  Vend,  and  Frank,  and  Saxon  there. 
But  little  recked  our  gallant  men ; 
And  loud  the  cry  might  be  heard  then 
Of  Norway's  brave  sea-roving  son  — 
'  On  'gainst  the  foe  !   on  !  lead  us  on  ! ' " 

*  Earl  Hakon.      Hordaland  is  often  used  for  Norway  by  the  scald. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  393 

Earl  Hakon  drew  up  his  people  in  ranks  upon  all  the  saga  vi. 
gate-towers  of  the  wall,  but  the  greater  part  of  them 
he  kept  marching  along  the  wall  to  make  a  defence 
wheresoever  an  attack  was  threatened.  Many  of  the 
emperor's  people  fell  without  making  any  impression 
on  the  fortification,  so  the  emperor  turned  back  with- 
out farther  attempt  at  an  assault  on  it.  So  it  is  said 
in  the  "  A^ellekla :  "— 

"  They  who  the  eagle's  feast  provide 
In  ranked  line  fought  side  by  side, 
'Gainst  lines  of  war-men  under  shields 
Close  packed  together  on  the  fields. 
Earl  Hakon  drives  by  daring  deeds 
These  Saxons  to  their  ocean-steeds ; 
And  the  young  hero  saves  from  fall 
The  Danaverk  —  the  people's  wall." 

After  this  battle  Earl  Hakon  went  back  to  his  ships, 
and  intended  to  sail  home  to  Norway;  but  he  did  not 
get  a  favourable  wind,  and  lay  for  some  time  outside 
at  Lymfiord. 

The  Emperor  Otto  turned  back  with  his  troops  to    Chapter 
Sleswick,  collected  his  ships  of  war,  and  crossed  the  King  Ha-' 
fiord  of  Sle*  into  Jutland.     As  soon  as  the  Danish  raid  and 
king  heard  of  this  he  marched  his  army  against  him,  Hakon  are 
and  there  was  a  battle,  in  which  the  emperor  at  last  '^^p*^^-^^- 
got  the  victory.     The  Danish  king  fled  to  Lymfiord, 
and  took  refuge    in   the  island    Morsey.  f     By   the 
help  of  mediators  who  went  between  the  king  and  the 
emperor,   a  truce  and  a  meeting  between  them  were 
agreed  on.     The  Emperor  Otto  and  the  Danish  king 
met  upon  Mors  Isle.     There  Bishop  Poppo  instructed 
King  Harald  in  the  holy  faith ;  and  thereafter  King 
Harald  allowed  himself  to  be  baptized,  and  also  the 
whole  Danish  army.     King  Hakon,  while  he  was  in 
Mors  Isle,  had  sent  a  message  to  Hakon  that  he  should 


*  The  fiord  now  called  Slie  runs  up  to  the  town  of  Sleswick. 
j"   Morsey  is  now  called  Mors^  an  island  in  the  Lymfiord. 


394  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.    come  to  his  succour  ;  and  the  earl  had  just  reached 
the  island  when  the  king  had  received  baptism.     The 
king  sends  word  to  the  earl  to  come  to  him,  and 
when  they  met  the  king  forced  the  earl  to  allow  him- 
self also  to  be  baptized.     So  Earl  Hakon  and  all  the 
men  who  were  with  him  were  baptized ;  and  the  king 
gave  them  priests  and  other  learned  men  with  them, 
and  ordered  that  the  earl  should  make  all  the  people 
in  Norway  be  baptized.      On  that  they  separated; 
and  the  earl  went  out  to  sea,  there  to  wait  for  a 
wind. 
Chapter         Whcu  a  wiud  camc  with  which  he  thought  he  could 
Earl  Ha-     get  clcar  out  to  sea,  he  put  all  the  learned  men  on 
kon  re-        shorc  as^ain,  and  set  off  to  the  ocean  ;  but  as  the  wind 

nouncestne  o  i  ' 

Christian  camc  rouud  to  south-west,  and  at  last  to  west,  he 
plunders  in  sailcd  castward,  out  through  the  sound  *,  ravaging 
Gotland,  -^j^e  land  on  both  sides.  He  then  sailed  eastward 
along  Scania,  plundering  the  country  wherever  he 
came.  When  he  got  east  to  the  skerries  of  East 
Gotland,  he  ran  in  and  landed,  and  made  a  great 
blood-sacrifice.  There  came  two  ravens  flying  which 
croaked  loudly ;  and  now,  thought  the  earl,  the  blood- 
offering  has  been  accepted  by  Odin,  and  he  thought 
good  luck  would  be  Avith  him  any  day  he  liked  to  go  to 
battle.  Then  he  set  fire  to  his  ships,  landed  his  men, 
and  went  over  all  the  country  with  armed  hand.  Earl 
Ottar,  who  ruled  over  Gotland,  came  against  him,  and 
they  held  a  great  battle  with  each  other ;  but  Earl 
Hakon  gained  the  day,  and  Earl  Ottar  and  a  great  part 
of  his  men  were  killed.  Earl  Hakon  now  drove  Avith 
fire  and  sword  over  both  the  Gotland  s,  until  he  came 
into  Norway  ;  and  then  he  proceeded  by  land  all 
the  way  north  to  Drontheim.  The  "  Vellekla"  tells 
about  this :  — 

*  Eyrarsund  is  the  sound  betwixt  Sealand  and   Sweden^  which  is 
still  called  Ore  Sound  by  the  Norwegians. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


395 


"  On  the  silent  battle-field^  saga  vi. 

In  viking  garb^  with  axe  and  shield, 
The  warrior,  striding  o'er  the  slain. 
Asks  of  the  gods  '  What  days  will  gain  ? ' 
Two  ravens,  flying  from  the  eastj 
Come  croaking  to  the  bloody  feast  : 
The  warrior  knows  what  they  foreshow  — 
The  days  when  Gotland  blood  will  flow. 
A  viking-feast  Earl  Hakon  kept, 
The  land  with  viking  fury  swept, 
Harrying  the  land  far  from  the  shore 
Where  foray  ne'er  was  known  before. 
Leaving  the  barren  cold  coast  side. 
He  ranged  through  Gotland  far  and  wide,  — 
Led  many  a  gold-decked  viking  shield 
O'er  many  a  peaceful  inland  field. 
Bodies  on  bodies  Odin  found 
Heaped  high  upon  each  battle  ground : 
The  moor,  as  if  by  witchcraft's  power, 
Grows  green,  enriched  by  bloody  shower. 
No  wonder  that  the  gods  delight 
To  give  such  luck  in  every  fight 
To  Hakon's  men  —  for  he  restores 
*       Their  temples  on  our  Norway  shores." 

The  Emperor  Otto  went  back  to  his  kin2:doni  in     Chapter 

...  XXIX 

the  Saxon  land,   and  parted  in  friendship  with  the  The  Em- 
Danish  king;.     It  is  said  that  the  Emperor  Otto  stood  p^/^^"  ^"^ 

O  ±  returns 

godfather  to  Swend,  King  Harald's    son,   and  gave  home. 
him  his  name  ;  so  that  he  was  baptized  Otto  Swend.  * 
King  Harald  held  fast  by  his  Christianity  to  his  dying 
day. 

King  Burislaf  went  to  Vendland,  and  his  son-in- 
law  King  01  af  went  with  him.  This  battle  is  re- 
lated also  by  Halfred  Vandr^edaskald  in  his  song  on 
Olaf:  — 

^'  He  who  through  the  foaming  surges 
His  white-winged  ocean-coursers  urges. 
Hewed  from  the  Danes,  in  armour  dressed. 
The  iron  bark  off"  mail-clad  breast." 

Olaf  Trvffo^vesson  was  three  vears  in  Vendland    Chapter 

XXX 

when  Geyra  his  queen  fell  sick,  and  she  died  of  her  oiafs 

journey 

*  This  was  Swend,  or  Swein,  afterwards  the  conqueror  of  England, 
and  father  of  Canute  the  Great. 


396  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  illness.  Olaf  felt  his  loss  so  great,  that  he  had  no 
from  Vend-  plcasure  ill  Vendlaiid  after  it.  He  provided  himself, 
land.  therefore,  with  war-ships,  and  went  out  again  a  plun- 

dering, and  plundered  first  in  Friesland,  next  in  Sax- 
land,  and  then  all  the  way  to  Flanders.  So  says 
Halfred  Yandr^edaskald :  — 

''  Olaf  s  broad  axe  of  shining  steel 
For  the  shy  wolf  left  many  a  meal. 
The  ill-shaped  Saxon  corpses  lay 
Heaped  up,  the  witch- wife's  horses'*  prey. 
She  rides  by  night :  at  pools  of  blood,, 
Where  Friesland  men  in  daylight  stood. 
Her  horses  slake  their  thirst,  and  fly 
On  to  the  field  where  Flemings  lie. 
The  raven -friend  in  Odin's  dress  "j*  — 
Olaf,  who  foes  can  well  repress. 
Left  Flemish  flesh  for  many  a  meal 
With  his  broad  axe  of  shining  steel." 

xxx^        Thereafter  Olaf  Tryggvesson    sailed   to    England, 

King  Olaf  and  ravaged  wide  around  in  the  land.     He  sailed  all 

son?fo!^'    the  way  north  to   Northumberland,  where  he  plun- 

rays.  dered ;  and  thence  to  Scotland,  where  he  marauded 

far  and  wide.      Then  he  went  to  the  Hebrides,  where 

he  fought  some  battles  ;  and  then  southwards  to  Man, 

where  he  also  fought.       He  ravaged   far   around  in 

Ireland,   and  thence  steered  to  Bretland*,  which  he 

laid  waste  with  fire  and  sword,  and  also  the  district 

called  Cumberland.  §    He  sailed  westward  from  thence 

to  Yalland  ||,  and  marauded  there.     When  he  left  the 

west,  intending  to  sail  to  England,  he  came  to  the 

islands  called  the  Scilly  Isles,  lying  westward  from 

*  Ravens  were  the  witches'  horses. 

f  Odin's  dress  is  full  armour. 

\  Bretland,  the  land  of  the  Britons,  or  Wales. 

§  Kumraland,  or  Cumberland ;  but  one  of  the  MSS.  of  Snorro's 
work  appears  to  have  Kauraland,  which  would  rather  indicate  Corn- 
wall, and  would  correspond  better  with  Olaf 's  voyage  from  Wales  to 
Valland. 

II   Valland  is  the  west  coast  of  France,  from  the  Seine  to  the  Loire. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


397 


England  in  the  ocean. 


Thus  tells  Halfrecl  Vandra3- 
daskald  of  these  events  :  — 


SAGA  VI. 


"  The  brave  young  king,  who  ne'er  retreats. 
The  Englishman  in  England  beats. 
Death  through  Northumberland  is  spread 
From  battleaxe  and  broad  spear-head. 
Through  Scotland  with  his  spears  he  rides ; 
To  Man  his  glancing  ships  he  guides  : 
Feeding  the  wolves  where'er  he  came. 
The  young  king  drove  a  bloody  game. 
The  gallant  bowman  in  the  isles 
Slew  foemen,  who  lay  heaped  in  piles. 
The  Irish  fled  at  Olaf's  name  — 
Fled  from  a  young  king  seeking  fame. 
In  Bretland,  and  in  Cumberland, 
People  against  him  could  not  stand : 
Thick  on  the  fields  their  corpses  lay, 
To  ravens  and  howling  wolves  a  prey." 

Olaf  Tryggvesson  had  been  four  years  on  this  cruise, 
from  the  time  he  left  Vendland  till  he  came  to  the 
Scilly  Islands. 

While  Olaf  Tryggvesson  lay  in  the  Scilly  Isles  he 
heard  of  a  seer,  or  fortune-teller,  on  the  islands,  who 
could  tell  beforehand  thinp-s  not  yet  done,  and  what  is  baptized 
he  foretold  many  believed  was  really  fulfilled.  Olaf  Sciiiy 
became  curious  to  try  this  man's  gift  of  prophecy.  He 
therefore  sent  one  of  his  men,  who  was  the  handsomest 
and  strongest,  clothed  him  magnificently,  and  bade 
him  say  he  was  the  king ;  for  Olaf  was  known  in  all 
countries  as  handsomer,  stronger,  and  braver  than  all 
others,  although,  after  he  had  left  Russia,  he  retained 
no  more  of  his  name  than  that  he  was  called  Ola,  and 
was  Russian.  Now  when  the  messenger  came  to  the 
fortune-teller,  and  gave  himself  out  for  the  king,  he 
got  the  answer,  "  Thou  art  not  the  king,  but  I  advise 
thee  to  be  faithful  to  thy  king."  And  more  he  would 
not  say  to  that  man.  The  man  returned,  and  told 
Olaf,  and  his  desire  to  meet  the  fortune-teller  was 
increased  ;  and  now  he  had  no  doubt  of  his  being 
really  a  fortune-teller.     Olaf  repaired  himself  to  him, 


Chapter 
XXXII. 

King  Olaf 


Islands. 


398  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

sACxA  VI.  and,  entering  into  conversation,  asked  him  if  he  could 
foresee  how  it  would  go  with  him  with  regard  to  his 
kingdom,  or  of  any  other  fortune  he  was  to  have. 
The  hermit  replies  in  a  holy  spirit  of  prophecy, 
"  Thou  wilt  become  a  renowned  king,  and  do  cele- 
brated deeds.  Many  men  wilt  thou  bring  to  faith 
and  baptism,  and  both  to  thy  own  and  others'  good; 
and  that  thou  mayst  have  no  doubt  of  the  truth  oi 
this  answer,  listen  to  these  tokens :  When  thou  com  est 
to  thy  ships  many  of  thy  people  will  conspire  against 
thee,  and  then  a  battle  will  follow  in  which  many  of 
thy  men  will  fall,  and  thou  wilt  be  wounded  almost 
to  death,  and  carried  upon  a  shield  to  thy  ship ;  yet 
after  seven  days  thou  shalt  be  well  of  thy  wounds, 
and  immediately  thou  shalt  let  thyself  be  baptized." 
Soon  after  Olaf  went  down  to  his  ships,  where  he  met 
some  mutineers  and  people  who  would  destroy  him 
and  his  men.  A  light  took  place,  and  the  result  was 
what  the  hermit  had  predicted,  that  Olaf  was  wounded, 
and  carried  upon  a  shield*  to  his  ship,  and  that  his 
wound  was  healed  in  seven  days.  Then  Olaf  perceived 
that  the  man  had  spoken  truth,  —  that  he  was  a  true 
fortune-teller,  and  had  the  gift  of  prophecy.  Olaf 
went  once  more  to  the  hermit,  and  asked  particularly 
how  he  came  to  have  such  wisdom  in  foreseeing  things 
to  be.  The  hermit  replied,  that  the  Christian's  God 
himself  let  him  know  all  that  he  desired  ;  and  he 
brought  before  Olaf  many  great  proofs  of  the  power 
of  the  Almighty.  In  consequence  of  this  encourage- 
ment Olaf  agreed  to  let  himself  be  baptized,  and  he 
and  all  his  followers  were  baptized  forthwith.  He 
remained  here  a  long  time,  took  the  true  faith,  and 
got  with  him  priests  and  other  learned  men. 

*  The  shield  of  the  Northmen  appears  to  have  been  not  the  round, 
but  the  narrow  oblong  shield.  We  read  of  the  men  sleeping  under 
their  shields,  and  of  being  carried  upon  the  shield  when  wounded.  It 
must  have  been  long-shaped. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  '^99 

In   autumn   Olaf   sailed   from   Scilly  to   England,    saga^vi. 
where  lie  put  into   a  harbour,   but  proceeded  in  a    Chapter 
friendly  way ;    for  England  Avas   Christian,   and  he  oiaf  mar-  * 
himself  had  become  Christian.     At  this  time  a  sum-  ^^'^^  ^-^■'^^* 
mons  to  a  Thing  went  through  the  country,  that  all 
men  should  come  to  hold  a  Thing.     Now  when  the 
Thing  was  assembled  a  queen  called  Gyda  came  to  it, 
a  sister  of  Olaf  Quaran,  who  was  king  of  Dublin  in 
Ireland.     She  had  been  married  to  a  great   earl  in 
England,  and  after  his  death  she  was  at  the  head  of 
his  dominions.      In  her  territory  there  was  a  man 
called  Aliin,  who  was  a  great  champion  and  single- 
combat  man.     He  had  paid  his  addresses  to  her ;  but 
she  gave  for  answer,  that  she  herself  would  choose 
whom  of  the  men  in  her  dominions  she  would  take  in 
marriage ;  and  on  that  account  the  Thing  was  assem- 
bled, that  she  might  choose  a  husband.     Aliin  came 
there  dressed  out  in  his  best  clothes,  and  there  were 
many  well-dressed  men   at  the  meeting.     Olaf  had 
come  there  also ;  but  had  on  his  bad-weather  clothes, 
and  a  coarse  over-garment,  and  stood  with  his  people 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  crowd.     Gyda  went  round 
and  looked  at  each,  to  see  if  any  appeared  to  her  a 
suitable  man.     Now  when  she  came  to  where  Olaf 
stood  she  looked  at  him  straight  in  the  face,  and  asked 
"  what  sort  of  man  he  was  ?" 

He  said,  "  I  am  called  Ola ;  and  I  am  a  stranger 
here." 

Gyda  replies,  "  Wilt  thou  have  me  if  I  choose 
thee?" 

''  I  will  not  say  no  to  that,"  answered  he ;  and  he 
asked  what  her  name  was,  and  her  family,  and  de- 
scent. 

"  I  am  called  Gyda,"  said  she;  ''  and  am  daughter 
of  the  king  of  Ireland,  and  was  married  in  this  country 
to  an  earl  who  ruled  over  this  territory.  Since  his 
death  I  have  ruled  over  it,  and  many  have  courted 


400 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XXXIV. 

King  Olaf 
and  Alfin's 
duel. 


Chapter 
XXXV. 

King  Olaf 
gets  his 
dog  Vige. 


me,  but  none  to  whom  I  would  choose  to  be  mar- 
ried." 

She  was  a  young  and  handsome  woman.  They 
afterwards  talked  over  the  matter  together,  and 
agreed,  and  Olaf  and  Gyda  were  betrothed. 

Alfin  was  very  ill  pleased  with  this.  It  was  the 
custom  then  in  England,  if  two  strove  for  any  thing, 
to  settle  the  matter  by  single  combat  * ;  and  now  Alfin 
challenges  Olaf  Tryggvesson  to  fight  about  this  busi- 
ness. The  time  and  place  for  the  combat  were  settled, 
and  that  each  should  have  twelve  men  with  him. 
When  they  met,  Olaf  told  his  men  to  do  exactly  as 
they  saw  him  do.  He  had  a  large  axe ;  and  when 
Alfin  was  going  to  cut  at  him  with  his  sword  he 
hewed  away  the  sword  out  of  his  hand,  and  with  the 
next  blow  struck  down  Alfin  himself.  He  then  bound 
him  fast.  It  went  in  the  same  way  with  all  Alfin's 
men.  They  were  beaten  down,  bound,  and  carried 
to  Olaf's  lodging.  Thereupon  he  ordered  Alfin  to 
quit  the  country,  and  never  appear  in  it  again ;  and 
Olaf  took  all  his  property.  Olaf  in  this  way  got  Gyda 
in  marriage,  and  lived  sometimes  in  England,  and 
sometimes  in  Ireland. 

While  Olaf  was  in  Ireland  he  was  once  on  an  expe- 
dition which  went  by  sea.  As  they  required  to  make 
a  foray  for  provisions  on  the  coast,  some  of  his  men 
landed,  and  drove  down  a  large  herd  of  cattle  to  the 
strand.  Now  a  peasant  came  up,  and  entreated  Olaf 
to  give  him  back  the  cows  that  belonged  to  him. 
Olaf  told  him  to  take  his  cows,  if  he  could  distinguish 
them ;  ""  but  don't  delay  our  march."  The  peasant 
had  with  him  a  large  house-dog,  which  he  put  in 
among  the  herd  of  cattle,  in  which  many  hundred 
head  of  beasts  were  driven  together.  The  dog  ran 
into  the  herd,   and  drove  out  exactly  the  number 

*  Holm-gang  ;   so  called  because  the  combatants  went  to  a  holm  or 
uninhabited  isle  to  fight  in  Norway. 


KINGS    OF    NOmVAY.  401 

which  the  peasant  had  said  he  wanted ;  and  all  were  saga  vi. 
marked  with  the  same  mark,  which  showed  that  the 
dog  knew  the  right  beasts,  and  was  very  sagacious. 
Olaf  then  asked  the  peasant  if  he  would  sell  him  the 
dog.  "  I  would  rather  give  him  to  you,"  said  the 
peasant.  Olaf  immediately  presented  him  with  a 
gold  ring  in  return,  and  promised  him  his  friendship 
in  future.  This  dog  was  called  Vige,  and  was  the 
very  best  of  dogs,  and  Olaf  owned  him  long  after- 
wards. 

The  Danish  kins^,  Harald  Gormson,  heard  that  Earl    Chai-ter 
Ilakon  had  thrown  off  Christianity,  and  had  plun-  or  Kino-  * 
dered  far  and  wide  in  the  Danish  land.     The  Danish  ^laraid 
king  levied  an  army,  with  which  he  went  to  Norway ;  and  his  ox- 
and  when  he  came  to  the  country  which  Earl  Hakon  a^fjI^sT 
had  to  rule  over  he  laid  waste  the  whole  land,  and  Iceland. 
came  with  his  fleet  to  some  islands  called  Solen  Isles. 
Only  five  houses  were  left  standing  in  Lerdal ;  but 
all  the  people  fled  up  to  the  Fielde,   and  into  the 
forest,  taking  with  them  all  the  moveable  goods  they 
could  carry  with  them.   Then  the  Danish  king  proposed 
to  sail  with  his  fleet  to  Iceland,  to  avenge  the  mock- 
cry  and  scorn  all  the  Icelanders  had  shown  towards 
him ;  for  they  had  made  a  law  in  Iceland,  that  they 
should  make  as  many  lampoons  against  the  Danish 
king  as  there  were  headlands  in  his  country ;  and  the 
reason  was,  because  a  vessel  which  belonged  to  cer- 
tain Icelanders  was  stranded  in  Denmark,   and  the 
Danes  took  all  the  property,  and  called  it  wreck.    One 
of  the  king's  bailifl's  called  Birgir  was  to  blame  for 
this ;  but  the  lampoons  were  made  against  both.     In 
the  lampoons  were  the  following  lines :  — 

*'  The  gallant  Harald  in  the  field 

Between  his  legs  lets  drop  his  shield ; 

Into  a  pony  he  was  changed. 

And  kicked  his  shield,  and  safely  ranged. 

And  Birgir,  he  who  dwells  in  halls 

For  safety  built  with  four  stone  walls,  : 

VOL.  I.  D  D 


492  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  That  these  might  be  a  worthy  pair, 
Was  changed  into  a  pony  mare." 

Chapter        Kin2f  Harald  told  a  warlock  to  hie  to  Iceland  in 

XXXVII 

King  Ha-*  soHic  altered  shape,  and  to  try  what  he  could  learn 
raid  sends    ^j^^rc  to  tcU  Mm :  and  he  set  out  in  the  shape  of  a 

a  warlock  J- 

in  a  trans-  whalc.*  Aud  whcH  hc  cauie  near  to  the  land  he  went 
shape  to  to  the  west  side  of  Iceland,  north  around  the  land, 
Iceland.  whcrc  lic  saw  all  the  mountains  and  hills  full  of  land- 
serpents,  some  great,  some  small.  When  he  came  to 
Yapnafiord  he  went  in  towards  the  land,  intending 
to  go  on  shore ;  but  a  huge  dragon  rushed  down  the 
dale  against  him  with  a  train  of  serpents,  paddocks, 
and  toads,  that  blew  poison  towards  him.  Then  he 
turned  to  go  westward  around  the  land  as  far  as  Eya- 
fiord,  and  he  went  into  the  fiord.  Then  a  bird  flew 
against  him,  which  was  so  great  that  its  wings 
stretched  over  the  mountains  on  either  side  of  the 
fiord,  and  many  birds,  great  and  small,  Avith  it. 
Then  he  swam  farther  west,  and  then  south  into 
Breidafiord.  When  he  came  into  the  fiord  a  large 
grey  bull  ran  against  him,  wading  into  the  sea,  and 
bellov/ing  fearfully,  and  he  was  followed  by  a  crowd 
of  land-serpents.  From  thence  he  went  round  by 
Reikaness,  and  wanted  to  land  at  Vikarsted,  but  there 
came  down  a  hill-giant  against  him  with  an  iron  staff 
in  his  hands.  He  was  a  head  higher  than  the  moun- 
tains, and  many  other  giants  followed  him.  He  then 
swam  eastward  along  the  land,  and  there  was  nothing 
to  see,  he  said,  but  sand  and  vast  deserts,  and,  with- 
out the  skerries,  high-breaking  surf;  and  the  ocean 
between  the  countries  was  so  wide  that  a  long-ship 
could  not  cross  it.  At  that  time  Brodhelge  dwelt  in 
Vapnafiord,  Eyolf  Valgerdson  in  Eyafiord,  Thord 
Gellir  in  Breidafiord,   and  Thorard  Gode  in   Olfus. 

*  It  is  probable  that  all  this  chapter  is  intended  for  satire  on  people 
in  the  different  localities  of  Iceland  mentioned ;  but  we  have  not  the 
clew  to  the  wit. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  403 

Then  the  Danish  kmg  turned  about  with  his  fleet,    saga  vi 
and  sailed  back  to  Denmark. 

Hakon  the  earl  settled  habitations  again  in  the 
country  that  had  been  laid  waste,  and  paid  no  scatt 
as  long  as  he  lived  to  Denmark. 

Swend,  King  Harald's  son,  who  afterwards  was  Chapter 
called  Tweski^eg  (forked  beard),  asked  his  father  Haraia 
King  Harald  for  a  part  of  his  kingdom ;  but  now,  "p«"nson's 
as  before,  Harald  would  not  listen  to  dividing 
the  Danish  dominions,  and  giving  him  a  kingdom. 
Swend  collected  ships  of  war,  and  gave  out  that  he  was 
going  on  a  viking  cruise ;  but  when  all  his  men 
were  assembled,  and  the  Jomsburg  viking  Palnatoke 
had  come  to  his  assistance,  he  ran  into  Sealand  to 
Tsefiord,  where  his  father  had  been  for  some  time 
with  his  ships  ready  to  proceed  on  an  expedition. 
Swend  instantly  gave  battle,  and  the  combat  Avas 
severe.  So  many  people  flew  to  assist  King  Harald, 
that  Swend  was  overpowered  by  numbers,  and  fled. 
But  King  Harald  received  a  wound  which  ended  in 
his  death  :  and  Swend  was  chosen  King  of  Denmark. 
At  this  time  Sigvald  Avas  earl  over  Jomsburg  in 
Yendland.  He  was  a  son  of  King  Strut-Harald,  who 
had  ruled  over  Scania.  Heming,  and  Thorkel  the 
Tall,  were  Sigvald's  brothers.  Bue  the  Thick  from 
Bornholm,  and  Sigurd  his  brother,  were  also  chiefs 
among  the  Jomsburg  vikings :  and  also  Vagn,  a  son 
of  Aake  and  Thorgunna,  and  a  sister's  son  of  Bue  and 
Sigurd.  Earl  Sigvald  had  taken  King  Swend  pri- 
soner, and  carried  him  to  Vendland,  to  Jomsburo-, 
where  he  had  forced  him  to  make  peace  with  Buris- 
laf,  the  king  of  the  Vends,  and  to  take  him  as  the 
peace-maker  betAveen  them.  Earl  Sigvald  was  mar- 
ried to  Astrid,  a  daughter  of  King  Burislaf ;  and  told 
King  Swend  that  if  he  did  not  accept  of  his  terms,  he 
Avould  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  the  Vends. 
The  king  knew  that  they  Avould  torture  him  to  death, 

DD  2 


404  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

^AOA  VI.    and  therefore  agreed  to  accept  the  earl's  mediation. 
The  earl  delivered  this  judgment  between  them — that 
King  Swend  should  marry  Gunhild,  King  Burislaf's 
daughter ;  and  King  Burislaf  again  Thyre,  a  daughter 
of  Harald,  and  King  Swend's  sister ;  but  that  each 
party  should  retain  their  own  dominions,  and  there 
should  be  peace  between  the  countries.     Then  King 
Swend  returned  home  to  Denmark  with  his  wife  Gun- 
hild.    Their  sons  were  Harald  and  Knud  (Canute) 
the  Great.     At  that  time  the  Danes  threatened  much 
to  bring  an  army  into  Norway  against  Earl  Hakon. 
xxx7x         King  Swend  made  a  magnificent  feast,  to  which  he 
The  solemn  iuvitcd  all  the  chiefs  in  his  dominions ;  for  he  would 
Joms^burg    E^^^  ^^^  succession-feast,    or  the  heirship-ale,   after 
vikings.       his  father  Harald.     A  short  time  before,  Strut-Harald 
in  Scania,  and  Yesete  in  Bornholm,  father  to  Bue  the 
Thick  and  to  Sigurd,  had  died ;  and  King  Swend  sent 
word  to  the  Jomsburg    vikings    that  Earl  Sigvald, 
and  Bue,  and  their  brothers,  should  come  to  him, 
and  drink  the  funeral-ale  for  their  fathers  in  the  same 
feast  the  king  was  giving.     The  Jomsburg  vikings 
came  to  the  festival  with  their  bravest  men,  eleven 
ships  of  them  from  Yendland,  and  twenty  ships  from 
Scania.      Great    was    the   multitude   of   people   as- 
sembled.    The  first   day  of  the  feast,   before  King 
Swend  went  up  into  his  father's  high  seat,  he  drank 
the  bowl  to  his  father's  memory,  and  made  the  solemn 
vow,  that  before  three  winters  were  past  he  would  go 
over  with  his  army  to  England,  and  either  kill  King 
Adalred  (Ethelred),  or  chase  him  out  of  the  country. 
This  heirship  bowl  all  who  were  at  the  feast  drank. 
Thereafter  for  the  chiefs  of  the  Jomsburg  vikings  was 
filled  and  drunk  the  largest  horn  to  be  found,  and  of 
the  strongest  drink.     When  that  bowl  was  emptied, 
all  men  drank  Christ's  health;  and  again  the  fullest 
measure  and  the  strongest  drink  were  handed  to  the 
Jomsburg  vikings.      The    third    bowl    was    to    the 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  >  405 

memory*'of  Saint  Michael,  which  was  drunk  by  all.  saga  vi. 
Thereafter  Earl  Sigvald  emptied  a  remembrance  bowl 
to  his  father's  honour,  and  made  the  solemn  vow,  that 
before  three  winters  came  to  an  end  he  would  go 
to  Norway,  and  either  kill  Earl  Hakon,  or  chase  him 
out  of  the  country.  Thereupon  Thorkel  the  Tall, 
his  brother,  made  a  solemn  vow  to  follow  his  bro- 
ther Sigvald  to  Norway,  and  not  flinch  from  the 
battle  so  long  as  Sigvald  would  fight  there.  Then 
Bue  the  Thick  vowed  to  follow  them  to  Norwav,  and 
not  flinch  so  long  as  the  other  Jomsburg  vikings 
fought.  At  last  Vagn  Aakeson  vowed  that  he 
would  go  with  them  to  Norway,  and  not  return  un- 
til he  had  slain  Thorkeld  Leire,  and  gone  to  bed  to 
his  daughter  Ingebord  without  her  friends'  consent. 
Many  other  chiefs  made  solemn  vows  about  difl'erent 
things.  Thus  was  the  heirship-ale  drunk  that  day ; 
but  the  next  morning,  when  the  Jomsburg  vikings 
had  slept  ofl*  their  drink,  they  thought  they  had 
spoken  more  than  enough.  They  held  a  meeting  to 
consult  how  they  should  proceed  with  their  under- 
taking, and  they  determined  to  fit  out  as  speedily  as 
possible  for  the  expedition ;  and  without  delay  ships 
and  men-at-arms  were  prepared,  and  the  news  spread 
quickly. 

When  Earl  Eric,  the  son  of  Hakon,  who  at  that    Chapter 
time  was  in  Eaumarige,  heard  the  tidings,  he  imme-  ^^^\  ^[.-^^ 
diately  gathered  troops,  and  went  to  the  Uplands,  ^^^^  ^ari 
and  thence  over  the  Fielde  to  Drontheim,  and  joined  prepare  a 
his  father  Earl  Hakon.     Thord  Kolbeinson  speaks  of  "''^^  ^^^^' 
this  in  the  lay  of  Eric  :  — 

"  News  from  the  south  are  flying  round  ; 
The  honder  comes  with  look  profound. 
Bad  news  of  bloody  battles  bringing. 
Of  steel-clad  men,  of  weapons  ringing. 
I  hear  that  in  the  Danish  land 
Long-sided  ships  slide  down  the  strand. 
And,  floating  with  the  rising  tide. 
The  ocean- coursers  soon  will  ride." 


DD    3 


406 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XLI. 

The  expe- 
dition of 
the  Joms- 
biirg  vi- 
kings to 
Norway. 


The  earls  Hakon  and  Eric  had  war-arrows  spUt 
up  and  sent  round  the  Drontheim  country  ;  and  de- 
spatched messages  to  both  the  Mores,  North  More  and 
South  More,  and  to  Kaumsdal,  and  also  north  to 
Naumadal  and  Halogaland.  They  summond  all  the 
country  to  provide  both  men  and  ships.  So  it  is  said 
in  Eric's  lay :  — 

"  The  scald  must  now  a  war-song  raise,  — 
The  gallant  active  youth  must  praise. 
Who  o'er  the  ocean's  field  spreads  forth 
Ships,  cutters,  boats,  from  the  far  north. 
His  mighty  fleet  comes  sailing  by, — 
From  headlands  many  a  mast  we  spy : 
The  peopl^e  run  to  see  them  glide, 
Mast  after  mast,  by  the  coast-side." 

Earl  Hakon  set  out  immediately  to  the  south,  to 
More,  to  reconnoitre  and  gather  people  ;  and  Earl 
Eric  gathered  an  army  from  the  north  to  follow. 

The  Jomsburg  vikings  assembled  their  fleet  in 
Lymfiord,  from  whence  they  went  to  sea  with  sixty 
sail  of  vessels.  When  they  came  under  the  coast  of 
Agde,  they  steered  northwards  to  Rogaland  with 
their  fleet,  and  began  to  plunder  when  they  came 
into  the  earl's  territory;  and  so  they  sailed  north 
along  the  coast,  plundering  and  burning.  A  man, 
by  name  Geirmund,  sailed  in  a  light  boat  with  a  few 
men  northwards  to  More,  and  there  he  fell  in  with 
Earl  Hakon,  stood  before  his  dinner  table,  and  told 
the  earl  the  tidings  of  an  army  from  Denmark  having 
come  to  the  south  end  of  the  land.  The  earl  asked 
if  he  had  any  certainty  of  it.  Then  Geirmund 
stretched  forth  one  arm,  from  which  the  hand  was 
cut  off,  and  said,  "  Here  is  the  token  that  the  enemy 
is  in  the  land."  Then  the  earl  questioned  him  parti- 
cularly about  this  army.  Geirmund  says  it  consists 
of  Jomsburg  vikings,  who  have  killed  many  people, 
and  plundered  all  around.  "  And  hastily  and  hotly 
they  pushed  on,"  says  he,   "  and  I  expect  it  will  not 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  407 

be  long  before  they  are  upon  you."  On  this  the  saga  vi. 
earl  rowed  into  every  fiord,  going  in  along  the  one 
side  of  the  land  and  out  at  the  other,  collecting  men ; 
and  thus  he  drove  along  night  and  day.  He  sent 
spies  out  upon  the  upper  ridges,  and  also  southwards 
into  the  Fiords ;  and  he  proceeded  north  to  meet  Eric 
with  his  men.     This  appears  from  Ericas  lay :  — 

"  The  earl,  well  skilled  in  war  to  speed 
O'er  the  wild  wave  the  viking-steed. 
Now  launched  the  high  stems  from  the  shore, 
Wliich  death  to  Sigvald's  vikings  bore. 
Rollers  beneath  the  ships'  keels  crash. 
Oar-blades  loud  in  the  grey  sea  splash, 
And  they  who  give  the  ravens  food 
Row  fearless  through  the  curling  flood." 

Eric  hastened  southwards  with  his  forces  the 
shortest  way  he  could. 

Earl    Sigvald   steered   with   his    fleet    northwards    CnAi-TEa 
around  Stad,  and  came  to  the  land  at  Hero  Island,  onhe^^ 
Although  the  vikings  fell  in  with  the  country  people,  Jo'^sburg 
the  people  never  told  the  truth  about  what  the  earl  tiK'lr  exr' 
was  doing ;  and  the  vikings  went  on  pillaging  and  p^^i^^o"- 
laying  waste.     They  laid  to  their  vessels  at  the  outer 
end  of  Had  Island,  landed,  plundered,  and  drove  both 
men  and  cattle  down  to  the  ships,  killing  all  the  men 
able  to  bear  arms. 

As  they  were  going  back  to  their  ships,  came  a 
bonder,  walking  near  to  Bue's  troop,  who  said  to 
them,  "  Ye  are  not  doing  like  true  warriors,  to  be 
driving  cows  and  calves  down  to  the  strand,  while  ye 
should  be  giving  chase  to  the  bear,  since  ye  are  com- 
ing near  to  the  bear's  den." 

''  What  says  the  old  man  ?"  asked  some.  "  Can  he 
tell  us  any  thing  about  Earl  Hakon?" 

The  peasant  replies,  "  The  earl  went  yesterday 
into  the  Horundar  fiord  with  one  or  two  ships,  cer- 
tainly not  more  than  three,  and  then  he  had  no  news 
about  you." 

D  D    4 


408  CHEONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  Bue  ran  now  with  his  people  in  all  haste  down  to 
the  ships,  leaving  all  the  booty  behind.  Bue  said, 
"  Let  us  avail  ourselves  now  of  this  news  we  have  got 
of  the  earl,  and  be  the  first  to  the  victory."  When 
they  came  to  their  ships  they  rowed  off  from  the  land. 
Earl  Sigvald  called  to  them,  and  asked  what  they 
were  about.  They  replied,  "  The  earl  is  in  the  fiord;" 
on  which  Earl  Sigvald  with  the  whole  fleet  set  oif, 
and  rowed  north  about  the  island  Had. 
CHATTEa  The  earls  Hakon  and  Eric  lay  in  Halkelswick, 
xLiii.  ^yi^gpg  r^ll  their  forces  were  assembled.  They  had 
of  the  battle  150  ships,  aud  they  had  heard  that  the  Jomsburg 
jo.nsburg  vikings  had  come  in  from  sea,  and  lay  at  the  island 
vikings.  Had;  and  they,  in  consequence,  rowed  out  to  seek 
them.  When  they  reached  a  place  called  Hiorunga- 
vaag  they  met  each  other,  and  both  sides  dreAV  up 
their  ships  in  line  for  an  attack.  Earl  Sigvald' s  ban- 
ner was  displayed  in  the  midst  of  his  army,  and  right 
against  it  Earl  Hakon  arranged  his  force  for  attack. 
Earl  Sigvald  himself  had  20  ships,  but  Earl  Hakon 
had  60.  In  Earl  Hakon's  army  were  these  chiefs, — 
Thorer  Hiort  from  Halogaland,  and  Styrkar  from 
Gimsar.  In  the  wing  of  the  opposite  array  of  the 
Jomsburg  vikings  was  Bue  the  Thick,  and  his  brother 
Sigurd,  with  20  ships.  Against  him  Earl  Eric  laid 
himself  with  60  ships;  and  with  him  were  these  chiefs, 
—  Gudbrand  Huite  from  the  Uplands,  and  Thorkill 
Leire  from  Viken.  In  the  other  wing  of  the  Joms- 
burg vikings'  array  was  Yagn  Aakeson  with  20  ships ; 
and  against  him  stood  Swend  the  son  of  Hakon,  in 
whose  division  was  Skiegge  of  Yria  at  Uphaug,  and 
Rognvald  of  Arvig  at  Stad,  with  60  ships.  It  is  told 
in  the  Eric's  lay  thus ;  — 

"  The  bonders'  ships  along  the  coast 
Sailed  on  to  meet  the  foemen's  host ; 
Tlie  stout  earl's  ships,  with  eagle  flight. 
Rushed  on  the  Danes  in  bloody  fight. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  409 

The  Danish  ships,  of  court-men  full,  saga  vi. 

Were  cleared  of  men,  —  and  many  a  hull 
Was  driving  empty  on  the  main, 
With  the  warm  corpses  of  the  slain." 

Eyvind  Skaldaspiller  says  also  in  the  "  Haleygia-tal : " 

"  'Twas  at  the  peep  of  day, — 
Our  brave  earl  led  the  way  ; 
His  ocean-horses  bounding  — 
His  war-horns  loudly  sounding  ! 
No  joyful  morn  arose 
For  Yngve  Frey's  base  foes  :  * 
These  Christian  island-men 
Wished  themselves  home  again." 

Then  the  fleets  came  together,  and  one  of  the 
sharpest  of  conflicts  began.  Many  fell  on  both  sides, 
but  the  most  by  far  on  Hakon's  side ;  for  the  Joms- 
burg  vikings  fought  desperately,  sharply,  and  mur- 
derously, and  shot  right  through  the  shields.  So 
many  spears  were  thrown  against  Earl  Hakon  that 
his  armour  was  altogether  split  asunder,  and  he  threw 
it  off.     So  says  Finn  Halkelson :  — 

"  The  ring-linked  coat  of  strongest  mail 
Could  not  withstand  the  iron  hail. 
Though  sewed  with  care  and  elbow  bent, 
By  Noma"]*,  on  its  strength  intent. 
The  fire  of  battle  raged  round, — 
Odin's  steel  shirt  flew  all  unbound  ! 
The  earl  his  ring-mail  from  him  flung. 
Its  steel  rings  on  the  wet  deck  rung ; 
Part  of  it  fell  into  the  sea, — 
A  part  was  kept,  a  proof  to  be 
How  sharp  and  thick  the  arrow-flight 
Among  the  sea- steeds  in  this  fight." 

The  Jomsburo^  vikin^fs  had  larerer  and  his^her-sided    Chapter 

•  XIIV 

ships ;   and  both  parties  fought  desperately.     Vagn  e^,.i  si.rl 


*  The  Danes,  being  Christians,  were  particularly  obnoxious  to  the 
heathen  Norsemen  and  the  scald. 

•j"  Noma,  one  of  the  Fates,  stands  here  for  women,  whose  business 
it  was  to  sew  the  rings  of  iron  upon  the  cloth  which  made  these  ring- 
mail  coats  or  shirts.  Some  of  these  may  be  seen  in  the  Museum  of 
Northern  Antiquities  at  Copenhagen.  The  needles,  although  some  of 
them  were  of  gold,  appear  to  have  been  without  eyes,  and  used  like 
shoemakers'  awls. 


val(l'.s 
flight. 


410  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  Aakeson  laid  his  ship  on  board  of  Swend  Earl  Hakon's 
son's  ship,  and  Swend  allowed  his  ship  to  give  way, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  flying.  Then  Earl  Eric 
came  up,  and  laid  his  ship  alongside  of  Yagn,  and 
then  Vagn  gave  way,  and  the  ships  came  to  lie  in  the 
same  position  as  before.  Thereupon  Eric  goes  to  the 
other  wing,  which  had  gone  back  a  little,  and  Bue  had 
cut  the  ropes,  intending  to  pursue  them.  Then  Eric 
laid  himself,  board  to  board,  alongside  of  Bue's  ship, 
and  there  was  a  severe  combat  hand  to  hand.  Two 
or  three  of  Eric's  ships  then  laid  themselves  upon 
Bue's  single  vessel.  A  thunder-storm  came  on  at 
this  moment,  and  such  a  heavy  hail-storm  that  every 
hailstone  weighed  a  pennyweight.*  The  Earl  Sig- 
vald  cut  his  cable,  turned  his  ship  round,  and  took 
flight.  Vagn  Aakeson  called  to  him  not  to  fly ;  but 
as  Earl  Sigvald  paid  no  attention  to  what  he  said, 
Vagn  threw  his  spear  at  him,  and  hit  the  man  at  the 
helm.  Earl  Sigvald  rowed  away  with  35  ships,  leav- 
ino*  25  of  his  fleet  behind. 

Chapter         Thcu  Earl  Hakou  laid  his  ship  on  the  other  side  of 

XL  V  . 

BueDigre  Buc's  sMp,  and  uow  came  heavy  blows  on  Bue's  men. 
throws^  Vigfus,  a  son  of  Yigaglum,  took  up  an  anvil  with  a 
overboard,  sharp  cud,  which  lay  upon  the  deck,  and  on  which  a 
man  had  welded  the  hilt  to  his  sword  just  before,  and 
being  a  very  strong  man  cast  the  anvil  with  both  hands 
at  the  head  of  Aslaf  Holmskalle,  and  the  end  of  it 
went  into  his  brains.  Before  this  no  weapon  could 
wound  this  Aslaf,  who  was  Bue's  foster-father,  and 
forecastle  commander,  although  he  could  wound  right 
and  left.  Another  man  among  the  strongest  and 
bravest  was  Haavardf  Hogvande.  In  this  attack 
Eric's  men  boarded  Bue's  ship,  and  went  aft  to  the 

*  Eyri,  a  piece  of  money  (ore);  equal  to  an  ounce  weight. 

■j"  This  name  Havard  or  Haavard,  common  among  the  Northmen, 
appears  to  be  the  English  name  Howard,  and  left  by  them  in  North- 
umberland and  East  Anglia. 


KINGS   OF    NOEWAY.  411 

quarter-deck  where  Bue  stood.  There  Thorstein  sagaji. 
Midlang  cut  at  Bue  across  his  nose,  so  that  the  nose- 
piece  of  his  helmet  was  cut  in  two,  and  he  got  a  great 
wound ;  but  Bue,  in  turn,  cut  at  Thorstein' s  side,  so 
that  the  sword  cut  the  man  through.  Then  Bue 
lifted  up  two  chests  full  of  gold,  and  called  aloud, 
''  Overboard  all  Bue's  men,"  and  threw  himself  over- 
board with  his  two  chests.  Many  of  his  people  sprang 
overboard  with  him.  Some  fell  in  the  ship,  for  it 
was  of  no  use  to  call  for  quarter.  Bue's  ship  was 
cleared  of  people  from  stem  to  stern,  and  afterwards 
all  the  others,  the  one  after  the  other. 

Earl  Eric  then  laid  himself  alon2:side  of  Vam's    Chapter 

.  X  I  V I 

ship,  and  there  was  a  brave  defence  ;  but  at  last  this  The 
ship  too  was  cleared,  and  Vae^n  and  thirty  men  were  Jomsburg 
taken  prisoners,  and  bound,  and  brought  to  land,  bound  to- 
Then  came  up  Thorkel  Leire,  and  said,  "  Thou  madest  onVchain. 
a  solemn  vow,  Yagn,  to  kill  me ;  but  now  it  seems 
more  likely  that  I  will  kill  thee."  Yagn  and  his  men 
sat  all  upon  a  log  of  wood  together.  Thorkel  had  an 
axe  in  his  hands,  with  which  he  cut  at  him  who  sat 
outmost  on  the  log.  Vagn  and  the  other  prisoners 
were  bound  so  that  a  rope  was  fastened  on  their  feet, 
but  they  had  their  hands  free.  One  of  them  said, 
"  I  will  stick  this  iish-bone  that  I  have  in  my  hand 
into  the  earth,  if  it  be  so  that  I  know  any  thing,  after 
my  head  is  cut  off."  His  head  was  cut  off,  but  the 
fish-bone  fell  from  his  hand.  There  sat  also  a  very 
handsome  man  with  long  hair,  who  twisted  his  hair 
over  his  head,  put  out  his  neck,  and  said,  "  Don't 
make  my  hair  bloody."  A  man  took  the  hair  in  his 
hands  and  held  it  fast.  Thorkel  hewed  with  his  axe; 
but  the  viking  twitched  his  head  so  strongly  that  he 
who  was  holding  his  hair  fell  forwards,  and  the  axe 
cut  off  both  his  hands,  and  stuck  fast  in  the  earth. 
Then  Earl  Eric  came  up,  and  asked,  "  Who  is  that 
handsome  man  ?" 


412  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.        He  replies,  "  I  am  called  Sigurd,  and  am  Bue's  son. 
But  are  all  the  Jomsburg  vikings  dead?" 

Eric  says,  ^'  Thou  art  certainly  Bue's  son.  Wilt 
thou  now  take  life  and  peace  ?" 

"  That  depends,"  says  he,  "  upon  who  it  is  that 
offers  it." 

"  He  offers  who  has  the  power  to  do  it — Earl  Eric." 

"  That  will  I,"  says  he,  "  from  his  hands."  And 
now  the  rope  was  loosened  from  him. 

Then  said  Thorkel  Leire,  ''  Although  thou  should 
give  all  these  men  life  and  peace,  earl,  Yagn  Aakeson 
shall  never  come  from  this  with  life."  And  he  ran 
at  him  mth  uplifted  axe ;  but  the  viking  Skarde 
swung  himself  in  the  rope,  and  let  himself  fall  just 
before  Thorkel's  feet,  so  that  Thorkel  fell  over  him, 
and  Yagn  caught  the  axe  and  gave  Thorkel  a  death- 
wound.  Then  said  the  earl,  "  Vagn,  wilt  thou  accept 
life?" 

"  That  I  will,"  says  he,  "  if  you  give  it  to  all 
of  us." 

*'  Loose  them  from  the  roj^e,"  said  the  earl;   and 

it  was  done.     Eighteen  were  killed,  and  twelve  got 

their  lives. 

^'"^viT        Earl  Hakon,  and  many  with  him,  were  sitting  upon 

Death  of     a  piece  of  wood,  and  a  bow-string  twanged  from  Bue's 

Valders!^     ship,  and  the  arrow  struck  Gissur  from  Yalders,  who 

was  sitting  next  the  earl,  and  was  clothed  splendidly. 

Thereupon  the   people  went    on    board,    and   found 

Haavard  Hogvande  standing  on  his  knees  at  the  ship's 

railing,  for  his  feet  had  been  cut  off*,  and  he  had  a 

bow  in  his  hand.    When  they  came  on  board  the  ship 

Haavard  asked,  '*  Who  fell  by  that  shaft  ?" 

They  answered,  ''  A  man  called  Gissur. " 

*  This  traditionary  tale  of  a  warrior  fighting  on  his  knees  after  his 
legs]  were  cut  off^  appears  to  have  been  a  popular  idea  among  the 
Northmen,  and  is  related  by  their  descendants  in  the  ballad  of  Chevy 
Chase. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


413 


^'  Then  my  luck  was  less  than  I  thought,"  said  he.     saoavi. 

''  Great  enough  was  the  misfortune,"  replied  they; 
''  but  thou  shalt  not  make  it  greater."  And  they 
killed  him  on  the  spot. 

The  dead  were  then  ransacked,  and  the  booty 
brought  all  together  to  be  divided ;  and  there  were 
twenty-five  ships  of  the  Jomsburg  vikings  in  the 
booty.     So  says  Finn  Halkelson :  — 

''  Many  a  viking's  body  lay 
Dead  on  the  deck  this  bloody  day. 
Before  they  cut  their  sun-dried  ropes. 
And  in  quick  flight  put  all  their  hopes. 
He  whom  the  ravens  know  afar 
Cleared  five-and-twenty  ships  of  war  : 
A  proof  that  in  the  furious  fight 
None  can  withstand  the  Norsemen's  might." 

Then  the  army  dispersed.  Earl  Hakon  went  to 
Drontheim,  and  was  much  displeased  that  Earl  Eric 
had  given  quarter  to  Vagn  Aakeson.  It  was  said  that 
at  this  battle  Earl  Hakon  had  sacrificed  for  victory 
his  son,  young  Erling,  to  the  gods;  and  instantly 
came  the  hail-storm,  and  the  defeat  and  slaughter  of 
the  Jomsburg  vikings. 

Earl  Eric  went  to  the  Uplands,  and  eastward  by 
that  route  to  his  own  kingdom,  taking  Aakeson  with 
him.  Earl  Eric  married  Yagn  to  Ingebiorg,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Thorkel  Leire,  and  gave  him  a  good  ship  of  war 
and  all  belonging  to  it,  and  a  crew ;  and  they  parted 
the  best  of  friends.  Then  Yagn  went  home  south 
to  Denmark,  and  became  afterwards  a  man  of  great 
consideration,  and  many  great  people  are  descended 
from  him. 

Harald  Graenske,  as  before  related,  was  kino-  in  chapter 
Westfold,  and  was  married  to  Aasta,  a  daughter  of  ^-^J^^^' 
Gudbrand  Kule.  One  summer  Harald  Graenske  made  Haraid  * 
an  expedition  to  the  Baltic  to  gather  property,  and  ^4^".'''^'^ 
he  came  to  Sweden.  Olaf  Swenske  was  king  there 
a  son  of  Eric  the  Victorious,  and  Sigrid,  a  daughter  of 
Skoglar  Toste.     Sigrid  was  then  a  widow,  and  had 


414  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  vr.  many  and  great  estates  in  Sweden.  When  she  heard 
that  her  foster-brother  was  come  to  the  country  a 
short  distance  from  her,  she  sent  men  to  him  to  invite 
him  to  a  feast.  He  did  not  neglect  the  invitation, 
but  came  to  her  with  a  great  attendance  of  his  fol- 
lowers, and  was  received  in  the  most  friendly  way. 
He  and  the  queen  sat  in  the  high  seat,  and  drank 
together  towards  the  evening,  and  all  his  men  were 
entertained  in  the  most  hospitable  manner.  At  night, 
when  the  king  went  to  rest,  a  bed  was  put  up  for  him 
wdth  a  hanging  of  fine  linen  around  it,  and  with  costly 
bed-clothes ;  but  in  the  lodging-house  there  were  few 
men.  When  the  king  was  undressed,  and  had  gone 
to  bed,  the  queen  came  to  him,  filled  a  bowl  herself 
for  him  to  drink,  and  was  very  gay,  and  pressed  him 
to  drink.  The  king  was  drunk  above  measure,  and, 
indeed,  so  were  they  both.  Then  he*  slept,  and  the 
queen  Avent  away,  and  laid  herself  down  also.  Sigrid 
was  a  woman  of  the  greatest  understanding,  and  too 
clever  in  many  things.  In  the  morning  there  was 
also  the  most  excellent  entertainment;  but  then  it 
went  on  as  usual  when  people  have  drunk  too  much, 
that  next  day  they  take  care  not  to  exceed.  The 
queen  was  very  gay,  and  she  and  the  king  talked  of 
many  things  with  each  other;  among  other  things 
she  valued  her  property,  and  the  dominions  she  had  in 
Sweden,  as  nothing  less  than  his  kingdom  and  pro- 
perty in  Norway.  With  that  observation  the  king 
was  nowise  pleased ;  and  he  found  no  pleasure  in  any 
thing  after  that,  but  made  himself  ready  for  his  jour- 
ney in  an  ill  humour.  On  the  other  hand,  the  queen 
was  remarkably  gay,  and  made  him  many  presents, 
and  followed  him  out  to  the  road.  Now  Harald  re- 
turned about  harvest  to  Norway,  and  was  at  home 
all  winter  ;  but  was  very  silent,  and  cast-down.  In 
summer  he  went  once  more  to  the  Baltic  with  his 
ships,  and  steered  to  Sweden.     He  sent  a  message  to 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  415 

Queen  Sigrid  that  he  wished  to  have  a  meeting  with  sagaj^i. 
her,  and  she  rode  down  to  meet  him.  They  talked 
together,  and  he  soon  brought  out  the  proposal  that 
she  should  marry  him.  She  replied,  that  this  was 
foolish  talk  for  him,  who  was  so.  well  married  already 
that  he  might  think  himself  well  off.  Harald  says, 
"  Aasta  is  a  good  and  clever  woman ;  but  she  is  not 
so  well  born  as  I  am.'^  Sigrid  replies,  "  It  may  be 
that  thou  art  of  higher  birth,  but  I  think  she  is  now 
pregnant  with  both  your  fortunes."  *  They  exchanged 
but  few  words  more  before  the  queen  rode  away. 
King  Harald  was  always  dull  in  apprehension,  and 
prepared  himself  again  to  ride  up  the  country  to  meet 
Queen  Sigrid.  Many  of  his  people  dissuaded  him; 
but  nevertheless  he  set  off  mth  a  great  attendance, 
and  came  to  the  house  in  which  the  queen  dwelt. 
The  same  evening  came  another  king,  called  Visavald, 
from  Russia,  likewise  to  pay  his  addresses  to  Queen 
Sigrid.  Lodging  was  given  to  both  the  kings,  and 
to  all  their  people,  in  a  great  old  room  of  an  outbuild- 
ing, and  all  the  furniture  was  of  the  same  character ; 
but  there  was  no  want  of  drink  in  the  evening,  and 
that  so  strong  that  all  were  drunk,  and  the  watch, 
both  inside  and  outside,  fell  fast  asleep.  Then  Queen 
Sigrid  ordered  an  attack  on  them  in  the  night,  both 
with  fire  and  sword.  The  house  was  burnt,  with  all 
who  were  in  it,  and  those  who  slipped  out  were  put 
to  the  sword.  Sigrid  said  that  she  would  make  these 
small  kings  tired  of  coming  to  court  her.  She  was 
afterwards  called  Sigrid  the  Haughty. 

This  happened  the  winter  after  the  battle  of  the    Chapter 
Jomsburg  vikings  at  Hiorunga  Yaag.     When  Harald  Birth  of ' 
went  up  the  country  after  Sigrid,  he  left  Rane  behind  ^^"s  9!^^' 
with  the  ships  to  look  after  the  men.     Now  when  Haraid    "^ 
Rane  heard  that  Harald  was  cut  off,  he  returned  to  ^'■^"^^^• 

*  This  refers  to  Saint  Olaf,  Aasta's  son  by  Harald. 


4lG  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  Norway  the  shortest  way  he  could,  and  told  the  news. 
He  repaired  first  to  Aasta,  and  related  to  her  all  that 
had  happened  on  the  journey,  and  also  on  what  errand 
Harald  had  visited  Queen  Sigrid.  When  Aasta  got 
these  tidings  she  set  off  directly  to  her  father  to  the 
Uplands,  who  received  her  well;  but  both  were  en- 
raged at  the  design  which  had  been  laid  in  Sweden, 
and  that  King  Harald  had  intended  to  set  her  in 
a  single  condition.  In  summer  Aasta,  Gudbrand's 
daughter,  was  confined,  and  had  a  boy-child,  who  had 
water  poured  over  him,  and  was  called  Olaf.  Rane 
himself  poured  water  over  him,  and  the  child  was 
brought  up  at  first  in  the  house  of  Gudbrand  and  his 
mother  Aasta. 
CiiAPTEa  Earl  Hakon  ruled  over  the  whole  outer  part  of  Nor- 
AboutEaii  way  that  lies  on  the  sea,  and  had  thus  sixteen  districts 
iiakoii.  under  his  sway.  The  arrangement  introduced  by  Ha- 
rald Haarfager,  that  there  should  be  an  earl  in  each 
district,  was  afterward  continued  for  a  long  time ; 
and  thus  Earl  Hakon  had  sixteen  earls  under  him. 
So  says  the  "  Yellekla  : " — 

"  Who  before  has  ever  known 
Sixteen  earls  subdued  by  one  ? 
Who  has  seen  all  Norway's  land 
Conquered  by  one  brave  hero's  hand  ? 
It  will  be  long  in  memory  held. 
How  Hakon  ruled  by  sword  and  shield. 
When  tales  at  the  viking's  mast  go  round^ 
His  praise  will  every  mouth  resound." 

While  Earl  Hakon  ruled  over  Norway  there  were 
good  crops  in  the  land,  and  peace  was  well  preserved 
in  the  country  among  the  bonders.  The  earl,  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  lifetime,  was  therefore  much 
beloved  by  the  bonders ;  but  it  happened,  in  the 
longer  course  of  time,  that  the  earl  became  very  in- 
temperate in  his  intercourse  with  women,  and  even 
carried  it  so  far  that  he  made  the  daughters  of  people 
of  consideration  be  carried  away,  and  brought  home 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  417 

to  him ;  and  after  keeping  them  a  week  or  two  as  saga  vi. 
concubines,  he  sent  them  home.  He  drew  upon  him- 
self the  indignation  of  the  relations  of  these  girls ; 
and  the  bonders  began  to  murmur  loudly,  as  the 
Prontheim  people  have  the  custom  of  doing  when 
any  thing  goes  against  their  judgment. 

Earl  Hakon,  in  the  mean  time,  hears  some  whisper    Chapter 
that  to  the  westward,  over  the  North  sea,  was  a  man  Thorer 
called  Ole,  who  was  looked  upon  as  a  king.     From  Kiakke's 
the  conversation  of  some  people,  he  fell  upon  the  discover 
suspicion  that  he  must  be  of  the  royal  race  of  Nor-  ^^,^U^^^' 
way.     It  was,  indeed,   said  that  this  Ole  was  from 
Russia ;  but  the  earl  had  heard  that  Tryggve  Olafs- 
son  had  had  a  son  called  Olaf,  who  in  his  infancy  had 
gone  east  to  Russia,  and  had  been  brought  up  by 
King  Yaldemar.      The   earl  had  carefully  inquired 
about  this  man,  and  had  his  suspicion  that  he  must 
be   the   same  person  who  had  now  come  to  these 
western  countries.      The  earl  had  a  very  good  friend 
called  Thorer  Klakke,  who  had  been  long  upon  vik- 
ing expeditions,  —  sometimes    also    upon    merchant 
voyages;  so  that  he  was  well  acquainted  all  around. 
This  Thorer  Earl  Hakon  sends  over  the  North  sea,  and 
told  him  to  make  a  merchant  voyage  to  Dublin,   as 
many  were  in  the  habit  of  doing,  and  carefully  to 
discover  who  this  Ole  was.     Provided  he  got  any 
certainty  that  he  was  Olaf  Tryggvesson,  or  any  other 
of  the  Norwegian   royal  race,  then    Thorer   should 
endeavour  to  ensnare  him  by  some  deceit,  and  bring 
him  into  the  earl's  power. 

On   this    Thorer   sails  westward  to   Ireland,   and    Chapter 
hears  that  Ole  is  in  Dublin  with  his  wife's    father  oiaf^Xrvg- 
King  Olaf  Quaran.      Thorer,  who  was   a  plausible  gvesson' 
man,  immediately  got  acquainted  with  Ole ;  and  as  Norway, 
they  often  met,  and  had  long  conversations  together, 
Ole  began  to  inquire  about  news  from  Norway,  and 
above  all  of  the  Upland  kings  and  great  people,  — 

VOL.  I.  E  E 


418  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  vf.  which  of  them  were  in  life,  and  what  dominions  they 
now  had.  He  asked  also  about  Earl  Hakon,  and  if 
he  was  much  liked  in  the  country.  Thorer  replies, 
that  the  earl  is  such  a  powerful  man  that  no  one  dares 
to  speak  otherwise  than  he  would  like;  but  that 
comes  from  there  being  nobody  else  in  the  country  to 
look  to.  "  Yet,  to  say  the  truth,  I  know  it  to  be  the 
mind  of  many  brave  men,  and  of  whole  communities, 
that  they  would  much  rather  see  a  king  of  Harald 
Haarfager's  race  come  to  the  kingdom.  But  we 
know  of  no  one  suited  for  this,  especially  now  that  it 
is  proved  how  vain  every  attack  on  Earl  Hakon  must 
be."  As  they  often  talked  together  in  the  same 
strain,  Ole  disclosed  to  Thorer  his  name  and  family, 
and  asked  him  his  opinion,  and  whether  he  thought 
the  bonders  would  take  him  for  their  king  if  he  were 
to  appear  in  Norway.  Thorer  encouraged  him  very 
eagerly  to  the  enterprise,  and  praised  him  and  his 
talents  highly.  Then  Olaf's  inclination  to  go  to  the 
heritage  of  his  ancestors  became  strong.  Olaf  sailed 
accordingly,  accompanied  by  Thorer,  with  five  ships ; 
first  to  the  Ebudes  ^,  and  from  thence  to  the  Ork- 
neys. At  that  time  Earl  Sigurd,  Lodver's  son,  lay  in 
Osmundswall  f,  in  the  island  South  Ronaldsa,  with 
a  ship  of  war,  on  his  way  to  Caithness.  Just  at  the 
same  time  Olaf  was  sailing  with  his  fleet  from  the  west- 
ward to  the  islands,  and  ran  into  the  same  harbour, 
because  Pentland  Firth  was  not  to  be  passed  at  that 
tide.     When  the   king  was  informed   the    earl   was 

*  Pinkerton  proves  with  great  learning  that  Hebrides  is  a  name 
arising  from  an  error  in  printing  or  transcribing,  the  Hebudes  being 
the  true  name  —  the  Eybode,  or  island  habitations.  Sudreya,  or  South 
Isles,  is  the  saga  name  of  the  Hebudes,  from  their  situation  relatively 
to  Iceland,  Faero,  Orkney,  and  other  islands  under  the  dominion  of 
Norway.  This  name  is  still  preserved  in  the  title  of  the  bishop, — viz. 
Sodor  and  Man. 

•f  Osmundswall  is  the  name  of  a  harbour  in  the  island  of  Walls, 
opposite  to  South  Ronaldsa,  still  used  for  waiting  a  tide  favourable  for 
crossing  Pentland  Firth. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  419 

there,  he  made  him  be  called  ;  and  when  the  earl  came  saga  vi. 
on  board  to  speak  with  the  king,  after  a  few  words 
only  had  passed  between  them,  the  king  says  the 
earl  must  allow  himself  to  be  baptized,  and  all  the 
people  of  the  country  also,  or  he  should  be  put  to 
death  directly ;  and  he  assured  the  earl  he  would  lay 
waste  the  islands  with  fire  and  sword,  if  the  people 
did  not  adopt  Christianity.  In  the  position  the  earl 
found  himself,  he  preferred  becoming  Christian,  and 
he  and  all  who  were  with  him  were  baptized.  After- 
wards the  earl  took  an  oath  to  the  king,  went  into 
his  service,  and  gave  him  his  son,  whose  name  was 
Whelp,  or  Dog,  as  an  hostage;  and  the  king  took 
Whelp  to  Norway  with  him.  Thereafter  Olaf  went 
out  to  sea  to  the  eastward,  and  made  the  land  at 
Moster  Island,  where  he  first  touched  the  ground  of 
Norway.  He  had  high  mass  sung  in  a  tent,  and 
afterwards  on  the  spot  a  church  was  built.  Thorer 
Klakke  said  now  to  the  king,  that  the  best  plan  for  him 
would  be  not  to  make  it  known  who  he  was,  or  to 
let  any  report  about  him  get  abroad ;  but  to  seek  out 
Earl  Hakon  as  fast  as  possible,  and  fall  upon  him  by 
surprise.  King  Olaf  did  so,  sailing  northward  day  and 
night,  when  wind  permitted,  and  did  not  let  the  people 
of  the  country  know  who  it  was  that  was  sailing  in 
such  haste.  When  he  came  north  to  Agdaness*,  he 
heard  that  the  earl  was  in  the  fiord,  and  was  in  discord 
with  the  bonders.  On  hearing  this,  Thorer  saw  that 
things  were  going  in  a  very  different  way  from  what 
he  expected ;  for  after  the  battle  with  the  Jomsburg 
vikings  all  men  in  Norway  were  the  most  sincere 
friends  of  the  earl  on  account  of  the  victory  he  had 
gained,  and  of  the  peace  and  security  he  had  given 
to  the  country ;  and  now  it  unfortunately  turns  out 

*  Agdaness,  the  south  point  of  the  mouth  of  Drontheim  fiord. 

E  E    2 


420  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

sAGAji.    that  a  great  chief  has  come  to  the  country  at  a  time 

when  the  bonders  are  in  arms  against  the  earl. 
Chapter  Earl  Hakon  was  at  a  feast  in  Melhouse  in  Guldal. 
Earl  Ha-  Thcrc  was  a  powerful  bonder,  by  name  Orm  Lyrgia, 
kon's  flight.  ^]^Q  dwelt  in  Boness,  who  had  a  wife  called  Gudrun, 
a  daughter  of  Bergthor  of  Lunde.  She  was  called 
the  Lunde-sun ;  for  she  was  the  most  beautiful  of 
women.  The  earl  sent  his  slaves  to  Orm,  with  the 
errand  that  they  should  bring  Orm's  wife,  Gudrun, 
to  the  earl.  The  thralls  tell  their  errand,  and  Orm 
bids  them  first  seat  themselves  to  breakfast;  but  be- 
fore they  had  done  eating,  many  people  from  the 
neighbourhood,  to  whom  Orm  had  sent  notice,  had 
gathered  together :  and  now  Orm  declared  he  would 
not  send  Gudrun  with  the  messengers.  Gudrun 
told  the  thralls  to  tell  the  earl  that  she  would  not 
come  to  him,  unless  he  sent  Thora  of  Rimol  after 
her.  Thora  was  a  woman  of  great  influence,  and 
one  of  the  earl's  best  beloved.  The  thralls  say  that 
they  will  come  another  time,  and  both  the  bonder 
and  his  wife  would  be  made  to  repent  of  it ;  and  they 
departed  with  many  threats.  Orm,  on  the  other 
hand,  sent  out  a  message-token  to  all  the  neighbour- 
ing country,  and  with  it  the  message  to  attack  Earl 
Hakon  with  weapons  and  kill  him.  He  sent  also  a 
message  to  Haldor  in  Skirdingsted,  who  also  sent  out 
his  message-token.  A  short  time  before,  the  earl 
had  taken  away  the  wife  of  a  man  called  Bryniolf, 
and  there  had  very  nearly  been  an  insurrection  about 
that  business.  Having  now  again  got  this  message- 
token,  the  people  made  a  general  revolt,  and  set  out 
all  to  Melhouse.  When  the  earl  heard  of  this,  he  left 
the  house  with  his  followers,  and  concealed  himself 
in  a  deep  glen,  now  called  Earl's  Dale.  Later  in  the 
day,  the  earl  got  news  of  the  bonders'  army.  They 
had  beset  all  the  roads ;  but  believed  the  earl  had 
escaped  to  his   ships,   which   his  son  Erlend,    a   re- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  421 

markably  handsome  and  hopeful  young  man,  had  the  saga  vi. 
command  of.  When  night  came  the  earl  dispersed 
his  people,  and  ordered  them  to  go  through  the  forest 
roads  into  Orkadal ;  "  for  nobody  mil  molest  you,'^ 
said  he,  ''  when  I  am  not  with  you.  Send  a  message 
to  Erlend  to  sail  out  of  the  fiord,  and  meet  me  in 
More.  In  the  mean  time  I  will  conceal  myself  from 
the  bonders."  Then  the  earl  went  his  way  with  one 
thrall  or  slave,  called  Karker,  attending  him.  There 
was  ice  upon  the  river  of  Guldal,  and  the  earl  drove  his 
horse  upon  it,  and  left  his  coat  lying  upon  the  ice. 
They  then  went  to  a  hole,  since  called  the  EarFs 
Hole,  where  they  slept.  When  Karker  awoke  he  told 
his  dream,  —  that  a  black  threatening  man  had  come 
into  the  hole,  and  was  angry  that  people  should 
have  entered  it;  and  that  the  man  had  said,  "  Ulle  is 
dead."  The  earl  said  that  his  son  Erlend  must  be 
killed.  Karker  slept  again,  and  was  again  disturbed 
in  his  sleep ;  and  when  he  awoke  he  told  his  dream,  — 
that  the  same  man  had  again  appeared  to  him,  and 
bade  him  tell  the  earl  that  all  the  Sounds  were  closed. 
From  this  dream  the  earl  began  to  suspect  that  it 
betokened  a  short  life  to  him.  They  stood  up,  and 
went  to  the  house  of  Rimol.  The  earl  now  sends 
Karker  to  Thora,  and  begs  of  her  to  come  secretly  to 
him.  She  did  so,  and  he  took  it  very  kind  of  her, 
and  begged  her  to  conceal  him  for  a  few  nights  un- 
til the  army  of  the  bonders  had  dispersed.  "  Here 
about  my  house,"  said  she,  "  you  will  be  hunted  after, 
both  inside  and  outside ;  for  many  know  that  I  would 
willingly  help  you  if  I  can.  There  is  but  one  place 
about  the  house  where  they  could  never  expect  to 
find  such  a  man  as  you,  and  that  is  the  swine-stye." 
When  they  came  there  the  earl  said,  ''  Well,  let  it  be 
made  ready  for  us ;  as  to  save  our  life  is  the  first  and 
foremost  concern."  The  slave  dug  a  great  hole  in  it, 
bore  away  the  earth  that  he  dug  out,  and  laid  wood 

E  E  3 


422 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


Chapter 
LIV. 
Erlcnd's 
death. 


SAGA  VI.  over  it.  Thora  brought  the  tidings  to  the  earl  that 
Olaf  Tryggvesson  had  come  from  sea  into  the  fiord, 
and  had  killed  his  son  Erlend.  Then  the  earl  and 
Karker  both  went  in  the  hole.  Thora  covered  it 
Tvith  wood,  and  threw  earth  and  dung  over  it,  and 
drove  the  swine  upon  the  top  of  it.  The  swine-stye 
was  under  a  great  stone. 

Olaf  Tryggvesson  came  from  sea  into  the  fiord  with 
five  long-ships,  and  Erlend,  Earl  Hakon's  son,  rowed 
towards  him  with  three  ships.  When  the  vessels 
came  near  to  each  other,  Erlend  suspected  they  might 
be  enemies,  and  turned  towards  the  land.  When  Olaf 
and  his  followers  saw  long-ships  coming  in  haste  out 
of  the  fiord,  and  rowing  towards  them,  they  thought 
Earl  Hakon  must  be  here ;  and  they  put  out  all  oars 
to  follow  them.  As  soon  as  Erlend  and  his  ships  got 
near  the  land  they  rowed  aground  instantly,  jumped 
overboard,  and  took  to  the  land ;  but  at  the  same 
instant  Olaf 's  ship  came  up  with  them.  Olaf  saw  a 
remarkably  handsome  man  swimming  in  the  water, 
and  laid  hold  of  a  tiller  and  threw  it  at  him.  The 
tiller  struck  Erlend,  the  son  of  Hakon  the  earl,  on 
the  head,  and  clove  it  to  the  brain ;  and  there  left 
Erlend  his  life.  Olaf  and  his  people  killed  many ; 
but  some  escaped,  and  some  were  made  prisoners,  and 
got  life  and  freedom  that  they  might  go  and  tell  what 
had  happened.  They  learned  then  that  the  bonders 
had  driven  away  Earl  Hakon,  and  that  he  had  fled, 
and  his  troops  were  all  dispersed. 

The  bonders  then  met  Olaf,  to  the  joy  of  both,  and 
they  made  an  agreement  together.  The  bonders  took 
kon's  death.  Olaf  to  bc  their  king,  and  resolved,  one  and  all,  to 
seek  out  Earl  Hakon.  They  went  up  Guldal ;  for  it 
seemed  to  them  likely  that  if  the  earl  was  concealed 
in  any  house  it  must  be  at  Rimol,  for  Thora  was  his 
dearest  friend  in  that  valley.  They  come  up,  there- 
fore, and  search  every  where,  outside  and  inside  the 


Chapte 
LV. 
Earl  Ha 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  423 

house,  but  could  not  find  him.  Then  Olaf  held  a  saga  vi. 
House  Thing  or  council  out  in  the  yard,  and  stood 
upon  a  great  stone  which  lay  beside  the  swine-stye, 
and  made  a  speech  to  the  people,  in  which  he  promised 
to  enrich  the  man  with  rewards  and  honours  who 
should  kill  the  earl.  This  speech  was  heard  by  the 
earl  and  the  thrall  Karker.  There  was  a  little  day- 
light admitted  to  them. 

"  Why  art  thou  so  pale,"  says  the  earl,  ''  and  now 
again  black  as  earth?  Thou  hast  not  the  intention 
to  betray  me  ?" 

"  By  no  means,"  replies  Karker. 

"  We  were  born  on  the  same  night,"  says  the  earl, 
"  and  the  time  will  be  short  between  our  deaths." 

King  Olaf  went  away  in  the  evening.  When  night 
came  the  earl  kept  himself  awake ;  but  Karker  slept, 
and  was  disturbed  in  his  sleep.  The  earl  woke  him, 
and  asked  him  "  what  he  was  dreaming  of?" 

He  answered,  "  I  was  at  Lade,  and  Olaf  Tryggves- 
son  was  laying  a  gold  ring  about  my  neck." 

The  earl  says,  "  It  will  be  a  red  ring  Olaf  will  lay 
about  thy  neck  if  he  catches  thee.  Take  care  of  that ! 
From  me  thou  shalt  enjoy  all  that  is  good,  therefore 
betray  me  not." 

They  then  kept  themselves  awake  both ;  the  one, 
as  it  were,  watching  upon  the  other.  But  towards 
day  the  earl  suddenly  dropped  asleep ;  but  his  sleep 
was  so  unquiet  that  he  drew  his  heels  under  him,  and 
raised  his  neck,  as  if  going  to  rise,  and  screamed 
dreadfully  high.  On  this  Karker,  dreadfully  alarmed, 
drew  a  large  knife  out  of  his  belt,  stuck  it  in  the 
earFs  throat,  and  cut  it  across,  and  killed  Earl  Hakon. 
Then  Karker  cut  off  the  earl's  head,  and  ran  aAvay. 
Late  in  the  day  he  came  to  Lade,  where  he  delivered 
the  earl's  head  to  King  Olaf,  and  told  all  these  cir- 
cumstances of  his  own  and  Earl  Hakon's  doings. 
Olaf  had  him  taken  out  and  beheaded. 

E  E  4  " 


424 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


Chapter 
LVf. 
Earl  Ha- 
kon's  head. 


SAGA  vr.  King  Olaf,  and  a  vast  number  of  bonders  witb  him, 
then  went  out  to  Nidarholm*,  and  had  Avith  them  the 
heads  of  Earl  Hakon  and  Karker.  This  holm  was 
used  then  for  a  place  of  execution  of  thieves  and  ill- 
doers,  and  there  stood  a  gallows  on  it.  He  had  the 
heads  of  the  earl  and  of  Karker  hung  upon  it,  and 
the  whole  army  of  the  bonders  cast  stones  at  them, 
screaming  and  shouting  that  the  one  worthless  fellow 
had  followed  the  other.  They  then  sent  up  to  Guldal 
for  the  earl's  dead  body.  So  great  was  the  enmity 
of  the  Drontheim  people  against  Earl  Hakon,  that  no 
man  could  venture  to  call  him  by  any  other  name  than 
Hakon  the  Bad ;  and  he  was  so  called  long  after  those 
days.  Yet,  sooth  to  say  of  Earl  Hakon,  he  was  in 
many  respects  fitted  to  be  a  chief:  first,  because  he 
was  descended  from  a  high  race ;  then  because  he  had 
understanding  and  knowledge  to  direct  a  government ; 
also  manly  courage  in  battle  to  gain  victories,  and 
good  luck  in  killing  his  enemies.  So  says  Thorleif 
Randfeldson :  — 


'^  In  Norway's  land  was  never  known 
A  braver  earl  than  the  brave  Hakon. 
At  sea,  beneath  the  clear  moon's  light. 
No  braver  man  e'er  sought  the  fight. 
Nine  kings  to  Odin's  wide  domain 
Were  sent,  by  Hakon's  right  hand  slain ! 
So  well  the  raven-flocks  were  fed  — 
So  well  the  wolves  were  filled  with  dead  ! 


Chapter 
LVII. 

Olaf  Tryg- 

gvesson. 

elected 


Earl  Hakon  was  very  generous ;  but  the  greatest 
misfortunes  attended  even  such  a  chief  at  the  end  of 
his  days:  and  the  great  cause  of  this  was  that  the 
time  was  come  when  heathen  sacrifices  and  idolatrous 
worship  were  doomed  to  fall,  and  the  holy  faith  and 
good  customs  to  come  in  their  place. 

Olaf  Tryggvesson  was  chosen  at  Drontheim  by  the 
General  Thing  to  be  the  king  over  the  whole  country, 
as  Harald  Haarfager  had  been.     The  whole  public 


Now  Munkholm,  opposite  to  the  town  of  Drontheim. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  ^  425 

and  the  people  throughout  all  the  land  would  listen    saga  vi. 
to  nothing  else  than  that  Olaf  Tryggvesson  should  be  king  at  a 
king.     Then  Olaf  went  round  the  whole  country,  and  xMnT* 
brought  it  under  his  rule,  and  all  the  people  of  Norway 
gave  in  their  submission ;  and  also  the  chiefs  in  the 
Uplands  and  in  Viken,  who  before  had  held  their 
lands  as  iiefs  from  the  Danish  king,  now  became  King 
Olaf 's  men,  and  held  their  lands  from  him.     He  went 
thus  through  the  whole  country  during  the  first  winter 
and  the  following  summer.     Earl  Eric,  the  son  of 
Earl  Hakon,  his  brother  Swend,  and  their  friends  and 
relations,  fled  out  of  the  country,  and  went  east  to 
Sweden  to  King  Olaf  the  Swede,  who  gave  them  a 
good  reception.     So  says  Thord  Kolbeinsson :  — 

^'  O  thou  whom  bad  men  drove  away, 
After  the  bonders_,  by  foul  play, 
Took  Hakon's  life  !    Fate  will  pursue 
These  bloody  wolves,  and  make  them  rue. 
When  the  host  came  from  out  the  West, 
Like  some  tall  stately  war-ship's  mast^ 
I  saw  the  son  of  Tryggve  stand. 
Surveying  proud  his  native  land." 

And  again,  — 

'^  Eric  has  more  upon  his  mind. 
Against  the  new  Norse  king  designed. 
Than  by  his  words  he  seems  to  show  - — 
And  truly  it  may  well  be  so. 
Stubborn  and  stiff  are  Droniheim  men. 
But  Drontheim's  earl  may  come  again  ; 
In  Swedish  land  he  knows  no  rest  — 
Fierce  wrath  is  gathering  in  his  breast." 

Lodin  was  the  name  of  a  man  from  Viken  who  Chapter 
was  rich  and  of  good  family.  He  went  often  on  Lodin's 
merchant  voyages,  and  sometimes  on  viking  cruises. 
It  happened  one  summer  that  he  went  on  a  merchant 
voyage  with  much  merchandise  in  a  ship  of  his  own. 
Pie  directed  his  course  first  to  Esthonia,  and  was 
there  at  a  market  in  summer.  To  the  place  at  which 
the  market  was  held  many  merchant  goods  were 
brought,  and  also  many  thralls  or  slaves  for  sale. 


marnaffe. 


426  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  There  Lodin  saw  a  woman  who  was  to  be  sold  as  a 
slave;  and  on  looking  at  her  he  knew  her  to  be  As- 
trid,  Eric's  daughter,  who  had  been  married  to  King 
Tryggve.  But  now  she  was  altogether  unlike  what 
she  had  been  when  he  last  saw  her ;  for  now  she  was 
pale,  meagre  in  countenance,  and  ill  clad.  He  went 
up  to  her,  and  asked  her  how  matters  stood  with  her. 
She  replied,  "  It  is  heavy  to  be  told  ;  for  I  have  been 
sold  as  a  slave,  and  now  again  I  am  brought  here  for 
sale."  After  speaking  together  a  little  Astrid  knew  him, 
and  begged  him  to  buy  her,  and  bring  her  home  to  her 
friends.  "  On  this  condition,"  said  he,  "  I  will  bring 
thee  home  to  Norway, — that  thou  wilt  marry  me.*' 
Now  as  Astrid  stood  in  great  need,  and  moreover 
knew  that  Lodin  was  a  man  of  high  birth,  rich,  and 
brave,  she  promised  to  do  so  for  her  ransom.  Lodin 
accordingly  bought  Astrid,  took  her  home  to  Norway 
with  him,  and  married  her  with  her  friends'  consent. 
Their  children  were  Thorkel  Nefia,  Ingerid,  and 
Ingegird.  Ingeborg  and  Astrid  were  daughters  of 
Astrid  by  King  Tryggve.  Eric  Biodaskalle's  sons 
were  Sigurd  Karlshoved,  Jostein,  and  Thorkel  Dydnil, 
who  were  all  rich  and  brave  people  who  had  estates 
east  in  the  country.  In  Viken,  in  the  east,  dwelt 
two  brothers,  rich  and  of  good  descent ;  one  called 
Thorgeir,  and  the  other  Hyrning ;  and  they  married 
Lodin  and  Astrid's  daughters,  Ingerid  and  Ingegird. 

CiiAiTEa        When    Harald  Gormson,  kiner    of   Denmark,   had 

LIX  ...  '  o  7 

King  oiaf  adoptcd  Christianity,  he  sent  a  message  over  all  his 
countT^o'r  kingdom  that  all  people  should  be  baptized,  and  con- 
viken.  verted  to  the  true  faith.  He  himself  followed  his 
message,  and  used  power  and  violence  where  nothing 
else  would  do.  He  sent  two  earls,  Urguthriot  and 
Brimilskior,  with  many  people  to  Norway,  to  proclaim 
Christianity  there.  In  Viken,  which  stood  directly 
under  the  king's  power,  this  succeeded,  and  many 
were  baptized  of  the  country  folk.     But  when  Swend 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  427 

Forked-beard,  immediately  after  his  father  King  saga  vi. 
Harald's  death,  went  out  on  war  expeditions  in  Saxon- 
land,  Friesland,  and  at  last  in  England,  the  North- 
men who  had  taken  up  Christianity  returned  back  to 
heathen  sacrifices,  just  as  before ;  and  the  people  in 
the  north  of  the  country  did  the  same.  But  now 
that  Olaf  Tryggvesson  was  king  of  Norway,  he  re- 
mained long  during  the  summer  in  Viken,  where 
many  of  his  relatives  and  some  of  his  brothers-in- 
law  were  settled,  and  also  many  who  had  been  great 
friends  of  his  father ;  so  that  he  was  received  with  the 
greatest  aiFection.  Olaf  called  together  his  mother's 
brothers,  his  stepfather  Lodin,  and  his  brothers-in-law 
Thorgeir  and  Hyrning,  to  speak  with  them,  and  to  dis- 
close with  the  greatest  care  the  business  which  he  de- 
sired they  themselves  should  approve  of,  and  support 
-with  all  their  power ;  namely,  the  proclaiming  Chris- 
tianity over  all  his  kingdom.  He  would,  he  declared, 
either  bring  it  to  this,  that  all  Norway  should  be 
Christian,  or  die.  "  I  shall  make  you  all,'^  said  he, 
''  great  and  mighty  men  in  promoting  this  work ;  for  I 
trust  to  you  most,  as  blood  relations  or  brothers-in- 
law."  All  agreed  to  do  what  he  asked,  and  to  follow 
him  in  what  he  desired.  King  Olaf  immediately  made 
it  known  to  the  public  that  he  recommended  Christianity 
to  all  the  people  in  his  kingdom,  which  message  was 
well  received  and  approved  of  by  those  who  had  before 
given  him  their  promise ;  and  these  being  the  most 
powerful  among  the  people  assembled,  the  others  fol- 
lowed their  example,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  east 
part  of  Yiken  allowed  themselves  to  be  baptized.  The 
king  then  went  to  the  north  part  of  Viken,  and  invited 
every  man  to  accept  Christianity  ;  and  those  who  op- 
posed him  he  punished  severely,  killing  some,  muti- 
lating others,  and  driving  some  into  banishment.  At 
length  he  brought  it  so  far,  that  all  the  kingdom 
which  his  father  King  Try ggve  had  ruled  over,  and 


428 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chaptkh 
LX. 
Of  the 
Hordaland 
people. 


Chapter 
LXI. 
Rogaland 
baptized. 


also  that  of  his  relation  Harald  Graenske,  accepted  of 
Christianity;  and  during  that  summer  and  the  fol- 
lowing winter  all  Yiken  was  made  Christian. 

Early  in  spring  King  Olaf  set  out  from  Yiken  -with 
a  great  force  northwards  to  Agder,  and  proclaimed  that 
every  man  should  be  baptized.  And  thus  the  people  re- 
ceived Christianity,  for  nobody  dared  oppose  the  king's 
will,  wheresoever  he  came.  In  Hordaland,  however, 
were  many  bold  and  great  men  of  Horde-Kaari's  race. 
He,  namely,  had  left  four  sons, — the  first  Thorleif 
Spaake ;  the  second,  Ogmund  father  of  Thorolf  Skialg, 
who  was  father  of  Erling  of  Sole  ;  the  third  was 
Thord,  father  of  the  Herse  Klyp  who  killed  King 
Sieve  Gunhild's  son;  and  lastly,  Olmod  father  of 
Askel,  whose  son  was  Aslak  Fitiaskalle;  and  that 
family  branch  was  the  greatest  and  most  considered 
in  Hordaland.  Now  when  this  family  heard  the 
bad  tidings,  that  the  king  was  coming  along  the  coun- 
try from  the  eastward  with  a  great  force,  and  was 
breaking  the  ancient  law  of  the  people,  and  imposing 
punishment  and  hard  conditions  on  all  who  opposed 
him,  the  relatives  appointed  a  meeting  to  take  coun- 
sel with  each  other,  for  they  knew  the  king  would 
come  down  upon  them  at  once ;  and  they  all  resolved 
to  appear  in  force  at  the  Gula  Thing,  there  to  hold  a 
conference  with  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson. 

When  King  Olaf  came  to  Rogaland,  he  immediately 
summoned  the  people  to  a  Thing ;  and  when  the 
bonders  received  the  message-token  for  a  Thing, 
they  assembled  in  great  numbers  well  armed.  After 
they  had  come  together,  they  resolved  to  choose  three 
men,  the  best  speakers  of  the  whole,  who  should 
answer  King  Olaf,  and  argue  with  the  king ;  and 
especially  should  decline  to  accept  of  any  thing  against 
the  old  law,  even  if  the  king  should  require  it  of  them. 
Now  when  the  bonders  came  to  tlie  Thing,  and  tlie 
Thing  was  formed.  King  Olaf  arose,  and  at  first  spoke 
good-huraouredly  to   the  people  ;  but  they  observed 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  429 

he  wanted  them  to  accept  Christianity,  with  all  his  saga  vi. 
fine  words :  and  in  the  conclusion  he  let  them  know 
that  those  who  should  speak  against  him,  and  not 
submit  to  his  proposal,  must  expect  his  displeasure 
and  punishment,  and  all  the  ill  that  it  was  in  his 
power  to  inflict.  When  he  had  ended  his  speech,  one 
of  the  bonders  stood  up,  who  was  considered  the  most 
eloquent,  and  who  had  been  chosen  as  the  first  who 
should  reply  to  King  Olaf.  But  when  he  would  begin 
to  speak  such  a  cough  seized  him,  and  such  a  difliculty 
of  breathing,  that  he  could  not  bring  out  a  word,  and 
had  to  sit  down  again.  Then  another  bonder  stood 
up,  resolved  not  to  let  an  answer  be  wanting,  although 
it  had  gone  so  ill  with  the  former ;  but  he  became  so 
confused  that  he  could  not  find  a  word  to  say,  and  all 
present  set  up  a  laughter,  amid  which  the  bonder  sat 
down  again.  And  now  the  third  stood  up  to  make  a 
speech  against  King  Olaf 's ;  but  when  he  began  he 
became  so  hoarse  and  husky  in  his  throat,  that  nobody 
could  hear  a  word  he  said,  and  he  also  had  to  sit 
do^vn.  There  was  none  of  the  bonders  now  to  speak 
against  the  king,  and  as  nobody  an  severed  him  there 
was  no  opposition  ;  and  it  came  to  this,  that  all  agreed 
to  what  the  king  had  proposed.  All  the  people  of 
the  Thing  accordingly  were  baptized  before  the  Thing 
was  dissolved. 

King  Olaf  went  with  his  men-at-arms  to  the  Gula    Chapter 
Thing ;  for  the  bonders  had  sent  him  word  that  they  Eiiing 
would  reply  there  to  his  speech.     When  both  parties  s'^'f'ss- 
had  come  to  the  Thing,  the  king  desired  first  to  have  a  wooing, 
conference  with  the  chief  people  of  the  country ;  and 
when  the  meeting  was  numerous  the  king  set  forth 
his  errand,  —  that  he  desired  them,  according  to  his 
proposal,  to  allow  themselves  to  be  baptized.     Then 
said  Olmod  the  Old,  "  We  relations  have  considered 
together  this  matter,  and  have  come  to  one  resolution. 
If  thou  thinkest,  king,  to  force  us  who  are  related 


430 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI.  together  to  such  thmgs  as  to  break  our  old  law,  or  to 
bring  us  under  thyself  by  any  sort  of  violence,  then 
will  we  stand  against  thee  with  all  our  might :  and  be 
the  victory  to  him  to  whom  fate  ordains  it.  But  if 
thou,  king,  wilt  advance  our  relations'  fortunes,  then 
thou  shalt  have  leave  to  do  as  thou  desires t,  and  we 
will  all  serve  thee  with  zeal  in  thy  purpose." 

The  king  replies,  "  What  do  ye  propose  for  obtain- 
ing this  agreement  ?  " 

Then  answers  Olmod,  "  The  first  is,  that  thou  wilt 
give  thy  sister  Astrid  in  marriage  to  Erling  Skialgs- 
son,  our  relation,  whom  we  look  upon  as  the  most 
hopeful  young  man  in  all  Norway." 

King  Olaf  replied,  that  this  marriage  appeared  to 
him  also  very  suitable  ;  "as  Erling  is  a  man  of  good 
birth,  and  a  good-looking  man  in  appearance:  but 
Astrid  herself  must  answer  to  this  proposal." 

Thereupon  the  king  spoke  to  his  sister.  She  said, 
"  It  is  but  of  little  use  that  I  am  a  king's  sister,  and 
a  king's  daughter,  if  I  must  marry  a  man  who  has  no 
high  dignity  or  office.  I  will  rather  wait  a  few  years 
for  a  better  match." 
Chapter        Kino*  Olaf  took  a  falcou  that  belono-ed  to  Astrid, 

LXIII  .  . 

Hordaiand   pluckcd  off  all  its  fcathcrs,  and  then  sent  it  to  her. 

baptized.  Xhcu  Said  Astrid,  "  Angry  is  my  brother."  And  she 
stood  up,  and  went  to  the  king,  who  received  her 
kindly ;  and  she  said,  that  she  left  it  to  the  king  to 
determine  her  marriage.  "  I  think,"  said  the  king, 
"  that  I  must  have  power  enough  in  this  land  to  raise 
any  man  I  please  to  high  dignity."  Then  the  king 
ordered  Olmod  and  Erling  to  be  called  to  a  conference, 
and  all  their  relations ;  and  the  marriage  was  deter- 
mined upon,  and  Astrid  betrothed  to  Erling.  There- 
after the  king  held  the  Thing,  and  recommended 
Christianity  to  the  bonders  ;  and  as  Olmod,  and  Erling, 
and  all  their  relations,  took  upon  themselves  the  most 
active  part  in  forwarding  the  king's  desire,  nobody 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  431 

dared  to  speak  against  it ;  and  all  the  people  were  saga  vi. 
baptized,  and  adopted  Christianity. 

Erling  Skialgsson  held  his  wedding  in  summer,  and  Chapter 


LXIV. 


g 


a  great  many  people  were  assembled  at  it.    King  Olaf  y.^y^^^ 
was  also  there,  and  offered  Erline:  an  earldom.    Erliner  skiaigs- 

soil's  w6n~ 

replied  thus:  "All  my  relations  have  been  hersers  ding, 
only,  and  I  will  take  no  higher  title  than  they  have ; 
but  this  I  will  accept  from  thee,  king,  that  thou 
makest  me  the  greatest  of  that  title  in  the  country." 
The  king  consented  ;  and  at  his  departure  the  king 
invested  his  brother-in-law  Erling  with  all  the  land 
north  of  the  Sogn  fiord,  and  east  to  the  Lidandisness  *, 
on  the  same  terms  as  Harald  Haarfager  had  given 
land  to  his  sons,  as  before  related. 

The  same  harvest  King  Olaf  summoned  the  bonders    Chapter 
to  a  Thing  of  the  four  districts  at  Drogseid,  in  Stad ;  Di^tHcTs  of 
and  there  the  people  from  Sogn,  the  Eiord  district,   ^^^"^ 
South  More,  and  Kaumsdal,  were  summoned  to  meet.   Fiords 
King  Olaf  came  there  with  a  great  many  people  who  ^^""J"*'^^^- 
had  followed  him  from  the  eastward,  and  also  with 
those  who  had  joined  him  from  Rogaland  and  Horda- 
land.  When  the  king  came  to  the  Thing,  he  proposed 
to  them  there,  as  elsewhere,  Christianity ;  and  as  the 
king  had  such  a  powerful  host  with  him,  they  were 
frightened.     The  king  offered  them  two  conditions, 
—  either  to  accept  Christianity,  or  to  fight.     But  the 
bonders  saw  they  were  in  no  condition  to  fight  the 
king,  and  resolved,  therefore,  that  all  the  people  should 
agree  to  be  baptized.     The  king  proceeded  afterwards 
to  North  More,  and  baptized  all  that  district.  He  then 
sailed  to  Lade,  in  Drontheim ;  had  the  temple  there 
rased  to  the  ground  ;  took  all  the  ornaments  and  all 
property  out  of  the  temple,  and  from  the  gods  in  it ; 
and  among  other  things  the  great  gold  ring  which 

*  The  Naze  of  Norway  is  called  Lindisness  and  Lidandisness  in  the 
saga. 


432 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI, 


Chapter 
LXVI. 

King  Olaf 
proposes 
inarriage 
to  Queen 
Sigrid  the 
Haughty. 


Earl  Hakon  had  ordered  to  be  made,  and  which  hung 
in  the  door  of  the  temple ;  and  then  had  the  temple 
burnt.  But  when  the  bonders  heard  of  this,  they 
sent  out  a  war-arrow  as  a  token  through  the  whole 
district,  ordering  out  a  warlike  force,  and  intended  to 


meet  the  king  with  it. 


In  the  mean  time  King  Olaf 
out  of  the  Fiord  along  the 


sailed  with  a  war-force 
coast  northward,  intending  to  proceed  to  Halogaland, 
and  baptize  there.  When  he  came  north  to  the  Bear 
Islands,  he  heard  from  Halogaland  that  a  force  was 
assembled  there  to  defend  the  country  against  the 
king.  The  chiefs  of  this  force  Avere  Harek  of  Thiotto, 
Thorer  Hiort  from  Yaage,  and  Ey vind  Kinnreif.  Now 
when  King  Olaf  heard  this,  he  turned  about  and 
sailed  southwards  along  the  land ;  and  when  he  got 
south  of  Stad  proceeded  at  his  leisure,  and  came  early 
in  winter  all  the  way  east  to  Viken. 

Queen  Sigrid  in  Sweden,  who  had  for  surname  the 
Haughty,  sat  in  her  mansion,  and  during  the  same 
winter  messengers  went  between  King  Olaf  and  Sigrid 
to  propose  his  courtship  to  her,  and  she  had  no  objec- 
tion ;  and  the  matter  was  fully  and  fast  resolved  upon. 
Thereupon  King  Olaf  sent  to  Queen  Sigrid  the  great 
gold  ring  he  had  taken  from  the  temple  door  of  Lade, 
which  was  considered  a  distinguished  ornament.    The 
meeting  for  concluding  the  business  was  appointed 
to  be  in  spring  on  the  frontier,  at  the  Gotha  river. 
Now  the  ring  which  King  Olaf  had  sent  Queen  Sigrid 
was  highly  prized  by  all  men ;  yet  the  queen's  gold- 
smiths, two  brothers,  who  took  the  ring  in  their  hands, 
and  weighed  it,  spoke  quietly  to  each  other  about  it, 
and  in  a  manner  that  made  the  queen  call  them  to  her, 
and  ask  "what  they  smiled  at?"     But  they  would 
not  say  a  word,  and  she  commanded  them  to  say  what 
it  was  they  had  discovered.     Then  they  said  the  ring 
is  false.     Upon  this  she  ordered  the  ring  to  be  broken 
in  pieces,  and  it  was  found  to  be  copper  inside.    Then 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  433 

the  queen  was   enraged,   and  said  that  Olaf  would    saga  vi. 
deceive  her  in  more  Avays  than  this  one.     In  the  same 
year  King  Olaf  went  into  Ringarike,  and  there  the 
people  also  were  baptized. 

Aasta,  the  daughter  of  Gudbrand,  soon  after  the  Chapter 
fall  of  Harald  Gra^nske  married  again  a  man  who  oiafHa- 
was  called  Sigurd  Syr,  Avho  w^as  a  king  in  Ringarike.  "^'^^^i^^} 
Sigurd  was  a  son  of  Halfdan,  and  grandson  of  Sigurd 
Rise,  who  was  a  son  of  Harald  Haarfager.  Olaf,  the 
son  of  Aasta  and  Harald  Graenske,  lived  with  Aasta, 
and  was  brought  up  from  childhood  in  the  house  of  his 
stepfather,  Sigurd  Syr.  Now  when  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson  came  to  Ringarike  to  spread  Christianity, 
Sigurd  Syr  and  his  wife  allowed  themselves  to  be 
baptized,  along  with  Olaf  her  son  ;  and  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson  was  godfather  to  Olaf,  the  stepson  of  Harald 
Grsenske.  Olaf  was  then  three  years  old.  King 
Olaf  returned  from  thence  to  Yiken,  where  he 
remained  all  winter.  He  had  now  been  three  years 
king  in  Norway. 

Early   in    spring   King   Olaf    went    eastwards   to    Chapter 
Konghelle  to  the  meeting  with  Queen   Sigrid  ;  and  Meetini^' 
when  they  met  the  business  was   considered  about  of  King 
which  the  mnter  before  they  had  held  communication,  sigrid  the 
namely,  their  marriage  ;  and  the  business  seemed  likely  Kon^heiif 
to  be  concluded.     But  when  Olaf  insisted  that  Sigrid 
should  let  herself  be  baptized,  she  answered  thus ;  — 
"■  I  must  not  part  from  the  faith  which  I  have  held, 
and  my  forefathers  before  me ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
I  shall  make  no  objection  to  your  believing  in  the  god 
that  pleases  you  best."     Then  King  Olaf  was  enraged, 
and  answered  in  a  passion,  "  Why  should  I  care  to 
have  thee,  an  old  faded  woman,  and  a  heathen  jade  ?  " 
and  therewith  struck  her  in  the  face  with  his  glove 
which  he  held  in  his  hands,  rose  up,  and  they  parted. 
Sigrid  said,  "  This  may  some  day  be  thy  death."    The 
king  set  off  to  Yiken,  the  queen  to  Sweden. 

VOL.  I.  F  F 


434 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 

Chapter 
LXIX. 
The  burn- 
ing of  war- 
locks. 


Chapter 
LXX. 

Eyvind 

Kellda's 

death. 


Then  the  king  proceeded  to  Viken,  and  held  a  Thing, 
at  which  he  declared  in  a  speech  that  all  the  men  of 
whom  it  should  be  known  to  a  certainty  that  they  dealt 
with  evil  spirits,  or  in  witchcraft,  or  were  sorcerers, 
should  be  banished  forth  of  the  land.  Thereafter  the 
king  had  all  the  neighbourhood  ransacked  after  such 
people,  and  called  them  all  before  him;  and  when 
they  were  brought  to  the  Thing  there  was  a  man 
among  them  called  Eyvind  Kellda,  a  grandson  of 
Rognvald  Rettilbein,  Harald  Haarfager's  son.  Eyvind 
was  a  sorcerer,  and  particularly  knowing  in  witch- 
craft. The  king  let  all  these  men  be  seated  in  one 
room,  which  was  well  adorned,  and  made  a  great  feast 
for  them,  and  gave  them  strong  drink  in  plenty.  Now 
when  they  were  all  very  drunk,  he  ordered  the  house 
to  be  set  on  fire,  and  it  and  all  the  people  within  it 
were  consumed,  all  but  Eyvind  Kellda,  who  contrived 
to  escape  by  the  smoke-hole  in  the  roof.  And  when 
he  had  got  a  long  way  off,  he  met  some  people  on  the 
road  going  to  the  king,  and  he  told  them  to  tell  the 
king  that  Eyvind  Kellda  had  slipped  away  from  the 
fire,  and  would  never  come  again  in  King  Olaf 's  power, 
but  would  carry  on  his  arts  of  witchcraft  as  much  as 
ever.  When  the  people  came  to  the  king  with  such  a 
message  from  Eyvind,  the  king  was  ill  pleased  that 
Eyvind  had  escaped  death. 

When  spring  came  King  Olaf  went  out  to  Yiken, 
and  was  on  visits  to  his  great  farms.  He  sent  notice 
over  all  Yiken  that  he  would  call  out  an  army  in 
summer,  and  proceed  to  the  north  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. Then  he  went  north  to  Agder;  and  when 
Easter  was  approaching  he  took  the  road  to  Roga- 
land  with  300  men,  and  came  on  Easter  evening 
north  to  Augvaldsness,  in  Kormt  Island,  where  an 
Easter  feast  was  prepared  for  him.  That  same  night 
came  Eyvind  Kellda  to  the  island  with  a  well-manned 
long-ship,  of  which  the  whole  crew  consisted  of  sor- 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  435 

cerers,  and  other  dealers  with  evil  spirits.  Eyvind  saga  vi. 
went  from  his  ship  to  the  land  with  his  followers,  and 
there  they  played  many  of  their  pranks  of  witchcraft. 
Eyvind  clothed  them  with  caps  of  darkness,  and  so 
thick  a  mist  that  the  king  and  his  men  could  see 
nothing  of  them ;  but  when  they  came  near  to  the 
house  of  Augvaldsness,  it  became  clear  day.  Then 
it  went  differently  from  what  Eyvind  had  intended ; 
for  now  there  came  just  such  a  darkness  over  him 
and  his  comrades  in  witchcraft  as  they  had  made 
before,  so  that  they  could  see  no  more  from  their  eyes 
than  from  the  back  of  their  heads,  but  went  round 
and  round  in  a  circle  upon  the  island.  When  the 
king's  watchmen  saw  them  going  about,  without 
knowing  what  people  these  were,  they  told  the  king. 
Thereupon  he  rose  up  with  his  people,  put  on  his 
clothes,  and  when  he  saw  Eyvind  mth  his  men 
wandering  about  he  ordered  his  men  to  arm,  and 
examine  what  folk  these  were.  The  king's  men  dis- 
covered it  was  Eyvind,  took  him  and  all  his  company 
prisoners,  and  brought  them  to  the  king.  Eyvind 
now  told  all  he  had  done  on  his  journey.  Then  the 
king  ordered  them  all  to  be  taken  out  to  a  skerry 
which  was  under  water  in  flood  tide,  and  there  to 
be  left  bound.  Eyvind  and  all  with  him  left  their 
lives  on  this  rock,  and  the  skerry  is  still  called  the 
Skerry  of  Shrieks. 

It  is  related  that  once  on  a  time  King  Olaf  was  at    Chapter 
a  feast  at  this  Augvaldsness,  and  one  eventide  there  of  King 
came  to  him  an  old  man  very  erifted  in  words,  and  S'f^^f"^ 

Ouin  s  nxi- 

with  a  broad-brimmed  hat  upon  his  head.  He  was  parition. 
one-eyed,  and  had  something  to  tell  of  every  land. 
He  entered  into  conversation  with  the  king;  and  as 
the  king  found  much  pleasure  in  the  guest's  speech, 
he  asked  him  concerning  many  things,  to  which  the 
guest  gave  good  answers :  and  the  Idng  sat  up  late  in 
the  evening.      Among  other  things,  the  king  asked 

F  F   2 


436 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
LXXIL 
The  Thing 
in  Dron- 
theim. 


him  if  he  knew  who  the  Augvald  had  been  who  had 
given  his  name  both  to  the  ness  and  to  the  house. 
The  guest  repHed,  that  this  Augvald  was  a  king,  and 
a  very  valiant  man,  and  that  he  made  great  sacrifices 
to  a  cow  which  he  had  with  him  wherever  he  went, 
and  considered  it  good  for  his  health  to  drink  her 
milk.  This  same  King  Augvald  had  a  battle  with  a 
king  called  Yarin,  in  which  battle  Augvald  fell.  He 
was  buried  under  a  mound  close  to  the  house;  "  and 
there  stands  his  stone  over  him,  and  close  to  it  his 
cow  also  is  laid."  Such  and  many  other  things,  and 
ancient  events,  the  king  inquired  after.  Now,  when 
the  king  had  sat  late  into  the  night,  the  bishop  re- 
minded him  that  it  was  time  to  go  to  bed,  and  the 
king  did  so.  But  after  the  king  was  undressed,  and 
had  laid  himself  in  bed,  the  guest  sat  upon  the  foot- 
stool before  the  bed,  and  still  spoke  long  mth  the 
king ;  for  after  one  tale  was  ended,  he  still  wanted  a 
new  one.  Then  the  bishop  observed  to  the  king,  it 
was  time  to  go  to  sleep,  and  the  king  did  so ;  and  the 
guest  went  out.  Soon  after  the  king  awoke,  asked 
for  the  guest,  and  ordered  him  to  be  called  ;  but  the 
guest  was  not  to  be  found.  The  morning  after,  the 
king  ordered  his  cook  and  cellar-master  to  be  called, 
and  asked  if  any  strange  person  had  been  with  them. 
They  said,  that  as  they  were  making  ready  the  meat 
a  man  came  to  them,  and  observed  that  they  were 
cooking  very  poor  meat  for  the  king's  table ;  where- 
upon he  gave  them  two  thick  and  fat  pieces  of  beef, 
which  they  boiled  with  the  rest  of  the  meat.  Then 
the  king  ordered  that  all  the  meat  should  be  thrown 
away,  and  said  this  man  can  be  no  other  than  the 
Odin  whom  the  heathen  have  so  long  worshipped ; 
and  added,   "  but  Odin  shall  not  deceive  us." 

King  Olaf  collected  a  great  army  in  the  east  of  the 
country  towards  summer,  and  sailed  with  it  north  to 
Nidaros  in  the  Drontheim  country.     From  thence  he 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  437 

sent  a  message-token  over  all  the  fiord,  calling  the  peo-  saga  vl 
pie  of  eight  diiFerent  districts  to  a  Thing ;  but  the  bon- 
ders changed  the  Thing-token  into  a  war-token,  and 
called  together  all  men,  free  and  unfree*,  in  all  the 
Drontheim  land.  Now  when  the  king  met  the  Thing, 
the  whole  people  came  fully  armed.  After  the  Thing 
was  seated,  the  king  spoke,  and  invited  them  to  adopt 
Christianity;  but  he  had  only  spoken  a  short  time 
when  the  bonders  called  out  to  him  to  be  silent,  or 
they  would  attack  him  and  drive  him  away.  "  We  did 
so,"  said  they,  "  with  Hakon  foster- son  of  Athelstan, 
when  he  brought  us  the  same  message,  and  we  held 
him  in  quite  as  much  respect  as  we  hold  thee."  When 
King  Olaf  saw  how  incensed  the  bonders  were,  and 
that  they  had  such  a  war  force  that  he  could  make 
no  resistance,  he  turned  his  speech  as  if  he  would 
give  way  to  the  bonders,  and  said,  ''  I  wish  only  to 
be  in  a  good  understanding  with  you  as  of  old;  and 
I  will  come  to  where  ye  hold  your  greatest  sacrifice- 
festival,  and  see  your  customs,  and  thereafter  we 
shall  consider  which  to  hold  by."  And  in  this  all 
agreed ;  and  as  the  king  spoke  mildly  and  friendly 
with  the  bonders,  their  anger  was  appeased,  and  their 
conference  with  the  king  went  ofi"  peacefully.  At  the 
close  of  it  a  midsummer  sacrifice  was  fixed  to  take 
place  in  Mseref ,  and  all  chiefs  and  great  bonders  were 
to  attend  it  as  usual.    The  king  was  to  be  at  it. 

*  '^  Thegn  oc  Thrael "  is  the  expression  in  the  Icelandic  text ;  and 
the  term  Thegn  or  Thane  occurs  rarely,  if  at  all^  in  any  other  passage 
of  the  early  sagas.  Bonde,  it  is  evident,  was  a  word  applied  only  to 
landowners;  and  to  this  general  meeting  all  men  of  the  highest  and  of 
the  lowest  class,  and  not  merely  the  men  having  right  as  bonders  to  sit 
in  the  Law  Things,  were  summoned  by  the  bonders.  Thegn  has  been 
a  more  comprehensive  term  than  Bonde,  and  means  here  a  free  proprie- 
tor of  any  kind  of  property.  The  bonders  or  landed  proprietors  only 
are  spoken  of  at  Law  Things,  and  no  mention  of  thegns  is  made  at 
Things,  or  on  any  other  occasion. 

t  At  Maere,  the  site  of  the  ancient  temple  in  the  Drontheim  district, 
a  large  mound  still  remains  with  the  name  Maere. 

F  F    3 


438 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI, 

Chatter 
LXXIII. 
Of 

Skiffigge, 
or  Iron 
Beard. 


Chapter 
LXXIV. 

The  feast 
at  Lade. 


There  was  a  great  bonder  called  Skiaegge,  and  some- 
times Iron  Ski^gge,  or  Iron  Beard,  who  dwelt  in 
Ophaug  in  Yriar.  He  spoke  first  at  the  Thing  to 
Olaf ;  and  was  the  foremost  man  of  the  bonders  in 
speaking  against  Christianity.  The  Thing  was  con- 
cluded in  this  way  for  that  time, — the  bonders  re- 
turned home,  and  the  king  went  to  Lade. 

King  Olaf  lay  with  his  ships  in  the  river  Nid,  and 
had  thirty  vessels,  which  were  manned  with  many 
brave  people ;  but  the  king  himself  was  often  at  Lade 
with  his  court  attendants.  As  the  time  now  was 
approaching  at  which  the  sacrifices  should  be  made 
at  Maere,  the  king  prepared  a  great  feast  at  Lade,  and 
sent  a  message  to  the  districts  of  Strind,  Guladal, 
and  out  to  Orkadal,  to  invite  the  chiefs  and  other 
great  bonders.  When  the  feast  was  ready,  and  the 
chiefs  assembled,  there  was  a  handsome  entertain- 
ment the  first  evening,  at  which  plenty  of  liquor 
went  round,  and  the  guests  were  made  very  drunk. 
The  night  after  they  all  slept  in  peace.  The  follow- 
ing morning,  when  the  king  was  dressed,  he  had  the 
early  mass  sung  before  him ;  and  when  the  mass  was 
over,  ordered  to  sound  the  trumpets  for  a  House 
Thing :  upon  which  all  his  men  left  the  ships  to  come 
up  to  the  Thing.  When  the  Thing  was  seated,  the 
king  stood  up,  and  spoke  thus  :  — ''  We  held  a  Thing 
at  Froste,  and  there  I  invited  the  bonders  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  baptized;  but  they,  on  the  other 
hand,  invited  me  to  offer  sacrifice  to  their  gods,  as 
King  Hakon,  Athelstan's  foster- son,  had  done ;  and 
thereafter  it  was  agreed  upon  between  us  that  we 
should  meet  at  ]\fere,  and  there  make  a  great  sacri- 
fice. Now  if  I,  along  with  you,  shall  turn  again  to 
making  sacrifice,  then  will  I  make  the  greatest  of 
sacrifices  that  are  in  use ;  and  I  will  sacrifice  men. 
But  I  will  not  select  slaves  or  malefactors  for  this, 
but  will  take  the  greatest  men   only  to  be   offered 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  439 

to  the  gods ;  and  for  this  I  select  Orni  Lyrgia  of  saga  vi. 
Medalhouse,  Styrkar  of  Gimsar,  Kaare  of  Gryting, 
Asbiorn  Thorbergson  of  Varness,  Orm  of  Lyra,  Hal- 
dor  of  Skirdingstedia ;"  and  besides  these  he  named 
five  others  of  the  principal  men.  All  these,  he  said, 
he  would  offer  in  sacrifice  to  the  gods  for  peace  and 
a  fruitful  season;  and  ordered  them  to  be  laid  hold  of 
immediately.  Now  when  the  bonders  saw  that  they 
were  not  strong  enough  to  make  head  against  the 
king,  they  asked  for  peace,  and  submitted  wholly  to 
the  king's  pleasure.  So  it  was  settled  that  all  the  bon- 
ders who  had  come  there  should  be  baptized,  and  should 
take  an  oath  to  the  king  to  hold  by  the  right  faith, 
and  to  renounce  sacrifice  to  the  gods.  The  king  then 
kept  all  these  men  as  hostages  who  came  to  his  feast, 
until  they  sent  him  their  sons,  brothers,  or  other 
near  relations. 

King  Olaf  went  in  with  all  his  forces  into  the  Chapter 
Drontheim  country;  and  when  he  came  to  Maere  all  of  the 
among  the  chiefs  of  the  Drontheim  people  who  were  cronthJim. 
most  opposed  to  Christianity  were  assembled,  and 
had  with  them  all  the  great  bonders  who  had  be- 
fore made  sacrifice  at  that  place.  There  was  thus 
a  greater  multitude  of  bonders  than  there  had  been 
at  the  Froste  Thing.  Now  the  king  let  the  people  be 
summoned  to  the  Thing,  where  both  parties  met 
armed;  and  when  the  Thing  was  seated  the  king 
made  a  speech,  in  which  he  told  the  people  to  go  over 
to  Christianity.  Jernskiaegge  replies  on  the  part  of 
bonders,  and  says  that  the  will  of  the  bonders  is  now, 
as  formerly,  that  the  king  should  not  break  their  laws. 
"  We  want,  king,"  said  he,  "  that  thou  shouldst  ofi*er 
sacrifice,  as  other  kings  before  thee  have  done." 
All  the  bonders  applauded  his  speech  with  a  loud 
shout,  and  said  they  would  have  all  things  according 
to  Avhat  Skiasgge  said.  Then  the  king  said  he  would 
go  into  the  temple  of  their  gods  with  them,  and  see 

F  F   4 


440  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.    what  the  practices  were  when  they  sacrificed.      The 
bonders  thought  well  of  this  proceeding,   and  both 
parties  went  to  the  temple. 
Chapter        Now  King  Olaf  cntcrcd  into  the  temple  with  some 
Th^D^n-  f^^  ^^  ^^^  men  and  a  few  bonders ;    and  when  the 
theim         king  came  to  where  their  gods  were,  Thor,  as  the 
peop  e  ap-  ^^^^  coHsidcrcd  among  their  gods,  sat  there  adorned 
with  gold  and  silver.     The  king  lifted  up  his  gold- 
inlaid  axe  which  he  carried  in  his  hands,  and  struck 
Thor  so  that  the  image  rolled  down  from  its  seat. 
Then   the  king's  men   turned   to    and  threw   down 
all  the   gods  from  their  seats  ;  and  while  the  king 
was  in  the  temple,  JernskiaBgge  was  killed  outside  of 
the  temple  doors,  and  the  king's  men  did  it.     When 
the  king  came  forth  out  of  the  temple  he  offered 
the  bonders  two  conditions, — that  all  should  accept  of 
Christianity  forthwith,  or  that  they  should  fight  with 
him.    But  as  SkiaBgge  was  killed,  there  was  no  leader 
in  the  bonders'  army  to  raise  the  banner  against  King 
Olaf ;  so  they  took  the  other  condition,   to  surrender 
to  the  king's  will  and  obey  his  order.     Then  King 
Olaf  had  all  the  people  present  baptized,    and  took 
hostages    from    them    for    their    remaining  true    to 
Christianity;  and  he  sent  his  men  round  to  every 
district,  and  no  man  in  the  Dron theim  country  op- 
posed Christianity,  but  all  people  took  baptism. 
Chapter        King  Olaf  witli  hls  pcoplc  wcut  out  to  Nidaros, 
Ofthl^      ^^^  made  houses  on  the  flat  side  of  the  river  Nid, 
building  of  which  lic  raiscd  to  be  a  merchant  town,  and  gave 
in  the         people  ground  to  build  houses   upon.     The   king's 
Sun"tr^'^""  house  hc  had  built  just  opposite  the  ships'  creek;  and 
he  transported  to  it,  in  harvest,  all  that  was  necessary 
for  his  winter  residence,  and  had  many  people  about 
him  there. 
Chapter        King  Olaf  appointed  a  meeting  with  the  relations 
Kingoiaf's  ^^  JcrnskioGgge,  and  offered  them  the  compensation 
niarriage.     or  penalty  for  his  bloodshed;  for  there  were  many 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  441 

bold  men  who  had  an  interest  in  that  business,  saga  vi. 
Jernskiaegge  had  a  daughter  called  Gudrun ;  and  at 
last  it  was  agreed  upon  between  the  parties  that  the 
king  should  take  her  in  marriage.  When  the  wedding- 
day  came  King  Olaf  and  Gudrun  went  to  bed  toge- 
ther. As  soon  as  Gudrun,  the  first  night  they  lay 
together,  thought  the  king  was  asleep,  she  drew  a 
knife,  with  which  she  intended  to  run  him  through ; 
but  the  king  saw  it,  took  the  knife  from  her,  got  out 
of  bed,  and  went  to  his  men,  and  told  them  what  had 
happened.  Gudrun  also  took  her  clothes,  and  went 
away  along  with  all  her  men  who  had  followed  her 
thither.  Gudrun  never  came  into  the  king's  bed 
again. 

The  same  autumn  Kins:  Olaf  laid  the  keel  of  a  s:reat    Chapter 

.  .  LXXIX 

long-ship  out  on  the  strand  at  the  river  Nid.  It  was  Building 
a  snsekke*;  and  he  employed  many  carpenters  upon  ^f  the  ship 
her,  so  that  early  in  winter  the  vessel  was  ready.  It 
had  thirty  benches  for  rowers,  was  high  in  stem  and 
stern,  but  was  not  broad.  The  king  called  this  ship 
the  Crane.  After  Jernskiaegge' s  death  his  body  was 
carried  toYriar,  and  lies  there  in  the  SkiaBgge  mound 
on  Osteraad. 

When  King;  Olaf  Try2:o:vesson  had  been  two  years    Chapter 
king  of  Norway,  there  was  a  Saxon  priest  in  his  house  xhang- 
who  was  called  Thangbrand,  a  passionate,  ungovern-  ^^?"^  *^^ 
able  man,  and  a  great  man-slayer ;  but  he  was  a  good  to  Iceland, 
scholar,  and  a  clever  man.     The  king  would  not  have 
him  in  his  house  upon  account  of  his  misdeeds ;  but 
gave  him  the  errand  to  go  to  Iceland,  and  bring  that 
land  to  the  Christian  faith.     The  king  gave  him  a 
merchant  vessel ;  and,  as  far  as  we  know  of  this  voyage 

*  A  snsekke  appears  to  have  been  a  denomination  of  one  class  of  long- 
ships  or  ships  of  war.  The  word  snek  is  still  used  in  the  north  of 
Scotland  for  quick,  nimble;  and  the  word  snekka  probably  denoted  the 
qualities  we  understand  by  a  cutter  or  fast  vessel.  A  dragon  appears  to 
have  been  applied  to  a  heavier  class  of  ships  of  war.  The  ships  of 
burden,  last-ships,  appear  to  have  been  built  on  a  different  model. 


442 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
LXXXl. 

Of  Sigurd 
and  Hauk. 


Chaptkr 
LXXXII. 
Of  Harek 
of  Thiotto. 


of  his,  he  landed  first  in  Iceland  at  Ostfiord,  in  the 
southern  Alftafiord,  and  passed  the  winter  in  the 
house  of  Hall  of  Sidu.  Thangbrand  proclaimed  Chris- 
tianity in  Iceland,  and  on  his  persuasion  Hall  and 
all  his  house-people,  and  many  other  chiefs,  allowed 
themselves  to  be  baptized ;  but  there  were  many  more 
who  spoke  against  it.  Thorvald  Yeile  and  Veterhd 
the  scald  composed  a  satire  about  Thangbrand;  but 
he  killed  them  both  outright.  Thangbrand  was  two 
years  in  Iceland,  and  was  the  death  of  three  men 
before  he  left  it. 

There  was  a  man  called  Sigurd,  and  another  called 
Hauk,  both  of  Halogaland,  who  often  made  merchant 
voyages.  One  summer  they  had  made  a  voyage 
westward  to  England ;  and  when  they  came  back  to 
Norway  they  sailed  northwards  along  the  coast,  and 
at  North  More  they  met  King  Olaf 's  people.  When  it 
was  told  the  king  that  some  Halogaland  people  were 
come  who  were  heathen,  he  ordered  the  steersmen  to 
be  brought  to  him,  and  he  asked  them  if  they  would 
consent  to  be  baptized ;  to  which  they  replied,  no. 
The  king  spoke  with  them  in  many  ways,  but  to  no 
purpose.  He  then  threatened  them  with  death  and 
torture ;  but  they  would  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
moved.  He  then  had  them  laid  in  irons,  and  kept 
them  in  chains  in  his  house  for  some  time,  and  often 
conversed  with  them,  but  in  vain.  At  last  one  night 
they  disappeared,  without  any  man  being  able  to  con- 
jecture how  they  got  away.  But  about  harvest  they 
came  north  to  Harek  of  Thiotto,  who  received  them 
kindly,  and  with  whom  they  stopped  all  winter,  and 
Avere  hospitably  entertained. 

It  happened  one  good-weather  day  in  spring  that 
Harek  was  at  home  in  his  house  with  only  few  people, 
and  time  hung  heavy  on  his  hands.  Sigurd  asked 
him  if  he  would  row  a  little  for  amusement.  Harek 
was  willing ;  and  they  went  to  the  shore,  and  drew 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  443 

down  a  six-oared  skiiF;  and  Sigurd  took  the  mast  sagavi. 
and  rigging  belonging  to  the  boat  out  of  the  boat- 
house,  for  they  often  used  to  sail  when  they  went  for 
amusement  on  the  water.  Harek  went  out  into  the 
boat  to  hang  the  rudder.  The  brothers  Sigurd  and 
Hauk,  who  were  very  strong  men,  were  fully  armed, 
as  they  were  used  to  go  about  at  home  among  the 
peasants.  Before  they  went  out  to  the  boat  they 
threw  into  her  some  butter-kits  and  a  bread-chest, 
and  carried  between  them  a  great  keg  of  ale.  When 
they  had  rowed  a  short  way  from  the  island  the  bro- 
thers hoisted  the  sail,  while  Harek  was  seated  at  the 
helm ;  and  they  sailed  away  from  the  island.  Then 
the  two  brothers  went  aft  to  where  Harek  the  bonder 
was  sitting ;  and  Sigurd  says  to  him,  ''  Now  thou 
must  choose  one  of  these  conditions,  —  first,  that  we 
brothers  direct  this  voyage ;  or,  if  not,  that  we  bind  thee 
fast  and  take  the  command;  or,  third,  that  we  kill  thee." 
Harek  saw  how  matters  stood  with  him.  As  a  single 
man,  he  was  not  better  than  one  of  those  brothers, 
even  if  he  had  been  as  well  armed ;  so  it  appeared  to 
him  wisest  to  let  them  determine  the  course  to  steer, 
and  bound  himself  by  oath  to  abide  by  this  condition. 
On  this  Sigurd  took  the  helm,  and  steered  south  along 
the  land,  the  brothers  taking  particular  care  that  they 
did  not  encounter  people.  The  wind  was  very  favour- 
able ;  and  they  held  on  sailing  along  until  they  came 
south  to  Drontheim  and  to  Nidaros,  where  they  found 
the  king.  Then  the  king  called  Harek  to  him,  and  in 
a  conference  desired  him  to  be  baptized.  Harek  made 
objections;  and  although  the  king  and  Harek  talked 
over  it  many  times,  sometimes  in  the  presence  of  other 
people,  and  sometimes  alone,  they  could  not  agree 
upon  it.  At  last  the  king  says  to  Harek,  "  Now  thou 
mayst  return  home,  and  I  will  do  thee  no  injury; 
partly  because  we  are  related  together,  and  partly 
that  thou  mayst  not  have  it  to  say  that  I  caught  thee 


444 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
LXXXIII. 

Eyvind 

Kinnrif's 

death. 


by  a  trick:  but  know  for  certain  that  I  intend  to 
come  north  next  summer  to  visit  you  Halogalanders, 
and  ye  shall  then  see  if  I  am  not  able  to  punish  those 
who  reject  Christianity."  Harek  was  well  pleased  to 
get  away  as  fast  as  he  could.  King  Olaf  gave  Harek 
a  good  boat  of  ten  or  twelve  pair  of  oars,  and  let  it 
be  fitted  out  with  the  best  of  every  thing  needful; 
and  besides  he  gave  Harek  thirty  men,  all  lads  of 
mettle,  and  well  appointed. 

Harek  of  Thiotto  went  away  from  the  town  as  fast 
as  he  could ;  but  Hauk  and  Sigurd  remained  in  the 
king's  house,  and  both  took  baptism.  Harek  pursued 
his  voyage  until  he  came  to  Thiotto.  He  sent  imme- 
diately a  message  to  his  friend  Eyvind  Kinnrif,  with 
the  word  that  he  had  been  with  King  Olaf;  but  would 
not  let  himself  be  cowed  down  to  accept  Christianity. 
The  message  at  the  same  time  informed  him  that 
King  Olaf  intended  coming  to  the  north  in  summer 
against  them,  and  they  must  be  at  their  posts  to  de- 
fend themselves  ;  it  also  begged  Eyvind  to  come  and 
visit  him,  the  sooner  the  better.  When  this  message 
was  delivered  to  Eyvind,  he  saw  how  very  necessary 
it  was  to  devise  some  counsel  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
king's  ha.nds.  He  set  out,  therefore,  in  a  light  vessel 
with  a  few  hands  as  fast  as  he  could.  AYhen  he 
came  to  Thiotto  he  was  received  by  Harek  in  the 
most  friendly  way,  and  they  immediately  entered  into 
conversation  with  each  other  behind  the  house.  When 
they  had  spoken  together  but  a  short  time.  King  Olaf 's 
men,  who  had  secretly  followed  Harek  to  the  north, 
came  up,  and  took  Eyvind  prisoner,  and  carried  him 
away  to  their  ship.  They  did  not  halt  on  their  voyage 
until  they  came  to  Drontheim,  and  presented  them- 
selves to  King  Olaf  at  Nidaros.  Then  Eyvind  was 
brought  up  to  a  conference  with  the  king,  who  asked 
him  to  allow  himself  to  be  baptized,  like  other  people ; 
but  Eyvind  decidedly  answered  he  would  not.     The 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  445 

king  still,  with  persuasive  words,  urged  him  to  accept  saga  vi. 
Christianity,  and  both  he  and  the  bishop  used  many- 
suitable  arguments ;  but  Eyvind  would  not  allow  him- 
self to  be  moved.  The  king  offered  him  gifts  and 
great  fiefs,  but  Eyvind  refused  all.  Then  the  king 
threatened  him  with  tortures  and  death,  but  Eyvind 
was  steadfast.  Then  the  king  ordered  a  pan  of  glowing 
coals  to  be  placed  upon  Eyvind' s  belly,  which  burst 
asunder.  Eyvind  cried,  "  Take  away  the  pan,  and  I 
will  say  something  before  I  die,"  which  also  was  done. 
The  king  said,  "  Wilt  thou  now,  Eyvind,  believe  in 
Christ?"  "  No,"  said  Eyvind,  ''  I  can  take  no  bap- 
tism ;  for  I  am  an  evil  spirit  put  into  a  man's  body  by 
Lapland  sorcery,  because  in  no  other  way  could  my 
father  and  mother  have  a  child."  With  that  died 
Eyvind,  who  had  been  one  of  the  greatest  sorcerers. 

The  spring  after  King  Olaf  fitted  out  and  manned    Chapter 
his  ships,  and  commanded  himself  his  ship  the  Crane.  Haioga- 
He  had  many  and  smart  people  with  him ;  and  when  ^^"^.  ™^^^ 
hew  as  ready,  he  sailed  northwards  with  his  fleet  past 
Byrd  Isle,  and  to  Halogaland.    Wheresoever  he  came 
to  the  land,  or  to  the  islands,  he  held  a  Thing,  and 
told  the  people  to  accept  the  right  faith,  and  to  be 
baptized.     No  man  dared  to  say  any  thing  against  it, 
and  the  whole  country  he  passed  through  was  made 
Christian.     King  Olaf  was  a  guest  in  the  house  of 
Harek   of  Thiotto,  who   was   baptized  with  all  his 
people.     At  parting  the  king  gave  Harek  good  pre- 
sents ;  and  he  entered  into  the  king's  service,  and  got 
fiefs,  and  the  privileges  of  lendsman  from  the  king. 

There  was  a  bonder,  by  name  Raud  the  Stron^^,  who    Chapter 
dwelt  in  Godo  Isle  in  Salten  fiord.     Raud  was  a  very  xhorer 
rich  man,  who  had  many  house  servants ;  and  likewise  Hiort's 
was  a  powerful  man,  who  had  many  Laplanders  in 
his  service  when  he  wanted  them.     Raud  was  a  great 
idolater,  and  very  skilful  in  witchcraft,  and  was  a 
great  friend  of  Thorer  Hiort,  before  spoken  of.    Both 


446  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.  were  great  chiefs.  Now  when  they  heard  that  King 
Olaf  was  coming  with  a  great  force  from  the  south 
to  Halogalancl,  they  gathered  together  an  army,  or- 
dered out  ships,  and  they  too  had  a  great  force  on 
foot.  Raud  had  a  large  ship,  with  a  gilded  head 
formed  like  a  dragon,  which  ship  had  thirty  rowing 
benches,  and  even  for  that  kind  of  ship  was  very 
large.  Thorer  Hiort  had  also  a  large  ship.  These 
men  sailed  southwards  with  their  ships  against  King 
Olaf,  and  as  soon  as  they  met  gave  gattle.  A  great 
battle  there  was,  and  a  great  fall  of  men  ;  but  prin- 
cipally on  the  side  of  the  Halogalanders,  whose  ships 
were  cleared  of  men,  so  that  a  great  terror  came  upon 
them.  Raud  rowed  with  his  dragon  out  to  sea,  and 
set  sail.  Raud  had  always  a  fair  wind  wheresoever 
he  wished  to  sail,  which  came  from  his  arts  of  witch- 
craft ;  and,  to  make  a  short  story,  he  came  home  to 
Godo  Isle.  Thorer  Hiort  fled  from  the  ships  up  to 
the  land  ;  but  King  Olaf  landed  people,  followed  those 
who  fled,  and  killed  them.  Usually  the  king  was  the 
foremost  in  such  skirmishes,  and  was  so  now.  When 
the  king  saw  where  Thorer  Hiort,  who  was  quicker 
on  foot  than  any  man,  was  running  to,  he  ran  after 
him  with  his  dog  Vig.  The  king  said,  "  Yig !  Vig ! 
catch  Hiorten."*  Vig  ran  straight  in  upon  him;  on 
which  Thorer  halted,  and  the  king  threw  a  spear  at 
him.  Thorer  struck  with  his  sword  at  the  dog,  and 
gave  him  a  great  wound ;  but  at  the  same  moment 
the  king's  spear  flew  under  Thorer's  arm,  and  went 
through  and  through  him,  and  came  out  at  his  other 
side.  There  Thorer  left  his  life ;  but  Vig  was  carried 
wounded  to  the  ships. 

Chapter        Kiu^^  Olaf  o^avc  Hfc  and  freedom  to  all  the  men  who 

T  XXXVT  . 

Kingoiaf's  asked  it  and  agreed  to  become  Christian.     King  Olaf 
voyage  to     sailed  with  his  fleet  northwards  along  the  coast,  and 


Godo. 


Hiorten  signifies  the  deer  or  hart. 


KINGS   OF   NORAVAY.  447 

baptized  all  the  people  among  whom  he  came ;  and  saga  vi. 
when  he  came  north  to  Salten  fiord*,  he  intended  to 
sail  into  it  to  look  for  Raud,  but  a  dreadful  tempest 
and  storm  was  raging  in  the  fiord.  They  lay  there 
a  whole  week,  in  which  the  same  weather  was  raging 
within  the  fiord ;  while  without  there  was  a  fine  brisk 
wind  only,  fair  for  proceeding  north  along  the  land. 
Then  the  king  continued  his  voyage  north  to  Omd,  in 
Hind  island,  where  all  the  people  submitted  to  Chris- 
tianity. Then  the  king  turned  about  and  sailed  to  the 
south  again ;  but  when  he  came  to  the  north  side  of 
Salten  fiord,  the  same  tempest  was  blowing,  and  the  sea 
ran  high  out  from  the  fiord,  and  the  same  kind  of 
storm  prevailed  for  several  days  while  the  king  was 
lying  there.  Then  the  king  applied  to  Bishop  Sigurd, 
and  asked  him  if  he  knew  any  counsel  about  it ;  and 
the  bishop  said  he  would  try  if  God  would  give  him 
power  to  conquer  these  arts  of  the  Devil. 

Bishop  Sigurd  took  all  his  mass  robes  and  went  for-    Chapter 
ward  to  the  bow  of  the  king's  ship ;  ordered  tapers  to  be  of  Bishop 
lighted,  and  incense  to  be  brought  out.   Then  he  set  the  of^RaucTs  ^ 
crucifix  upon  the  stem  of  the  vessel,  read  the  Evangelist  ^^eing  tor- 
and  many  prayers,  besprinkled  the  whole  ship  with  holy 
water,  and  then  ordered  the  ship-tent  to  be  stowed  away, 
and  to  row  into  the  fiord.     The  king  ordered  all  the 
other  ships  to  follow  him.     Now  when  all  was  ready 
on  board  the  Crane  to  row,  she  went  into  the  fiord 
without  the  rowers  finding  any  mnd ;  and  the  sea  was 
curled  about  their  keel  track  like  as  in  a  calm,  so 


*  The  Salten  fiord  is  more  celebrated  in  the  north  of  Norway,  and 
more  dreaded,  than  the  famous  Maelstrom.  It  is  a  large  fiord  within ; 
but  the  throat  through  which  the  vast  mass  of  water  has  to  run  in  and 
out  at  flood  and  ebb  is  so  narrow,  that  it  makes  a  very  heavy  and  dan- 
gerous race  or  roost  for  many  miles  out  in  the  sea,  especially  in  ebb, 
when  the  whole  body  of  water  is  returning  to  the  ocean.  The  stream 
can  only  be  crossed  during  a  few  minutes  at  still  water,  when  flood 
or  ebb  has  not  begun  to  run,  unless  at  a  great  distance  from  the  jaws  of 
this  singular  gulph. 


448  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  quiet  and  still  was  the  water ;  yet  on  each  side  of 
them  the  waves  were  lashing  up  so  high  that  they 
hid  the  sight  of  the  mountains.  And  so  the  one  ship 
followed  the  other  in  the  smooth  sea  track;  and  they 
proceeded  this  way  the  whole  day  and  night,  until  they 
reached  Godo  Isle.  Now  when  they  came  to  Raud's 
house  his  great  ship,  the  dragon,  was  afloat  close  to 
the  land.  King  Olaf  went  up  to  the  house  imme- 
diately with  his  people ;  made  an  attack  on  the  loft  in 
which  Raud  was  sleeping,  and  broke  it  open.  The 
men  rushed  in :  Raud  was  taken  and  bound,  and  of 
the  people  with  him  some  were  killed  and  some  made 
prisoners.  Then  the  king's  men  went  to  a  lodging  in 
which  Raud's  house  servants  slept,  and  killed  some, 
bound  others,  and  beat  others.  Then  the  king  ordered 
Raud  to  be  brought  before  him,  and  offered  him  bap- 
tism. "  And,"  says  the  king,  "  I  will  not  take  thy 
property  from  thee,  but  rather  be  thy  friend,  if  thou 
wilt  make  thyself  worthy  to  be  so."  Raud  exclaimed 
with  all  his  might  against  the  proposal,  saying  he 
would  never  believe  in  Christ,  and  making  his  scoff 
of  God.  Then  the  king  was  wroth,  and  said  Raud 
should  die  the  worst  of  deaths.  And  the  king  ordered 
him  to  be  bound  to  a  beam  of  wood,  with  his  face 
uppermost,  and  a  round  pin  of  wood  to  be  set  between 
his  teeth  to  force  his  mouth  open.  Then  the  king 
ordered  an  adder  to  be  stuck  into  the  mouth  of  him ; 
but  the  serpent  would  not  go  into  his  mouth,  but 
shrunk  back  when  Raud  breathed  against  it.  Now 
the  king  ordered  a  hollow  branch  of  an  angelica  root 
to  be  stuck  into  Raud's  mouth ;  others  say  the  king 
put  his  horn  into  his  mouth,  and  forced  the  serpent 
to  go  in  by  holding  a  red  hot-iron  before  the  opening. 
So  the  serpent  crept  into  the  mouth  of  Raud  and 
down  his  throat,  and  gnawed  its  way  out  of  his  side ; 
and  thus  Raud  perished.  King  Olaf  took  here  much 
gold  and  silver,  and  other  property  of  weapons,  and 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  449 

many  sorts   of  precious    eiFects ;    and   all   the   men    sagaji. 
who  were  with  Raucl  he  either  had  baptized,  or  if 
they  refused  had  them  killed  or  tortured.     Then  the 
king  took  the  dragon-ship  which  Kaud  had  owned, 
and  steered  it  himself;  for  it  was  a  much  larger  and 
handsomer  vessel  than  the  Crane.     In  front  it  had  a 
dragon's  head,  and  aft  a  crook,  which  turned  up,  and 
ended  with  the  figure  of  the  dragon's  tail.  The  carved 
work  on  each  side  of  the  stem  and  stern  was  gilded. 
This  ship  the  king  called  the  Serpent.   When  the  sails 
were  hoisted  they  represented,  as  it  were,  the  dragon's 
wings ;  and  the  ship  was  the  handsomest  in  all  Norway. 
The  islands  on  which  Kaud  dwelt  were  called  Gilling 
andHaering ;  but  the  whole  islands  together  were  called 
Godo  Isles,  and  the  current  between  the  isles  and  the 
mainland  the  Godo  Stream.     King  Olaf  baptized  the 
whole  people  of  the  fiord,  and  then  sailed  southwards 
along  the  land ;  and  on  this  voyage  happened  much  and 
various  things,  which  are  set  down  in  tales  and  sagas, 
— namely,  how  witches  and  evil  spirits  tormented  his 
men,  and  sometimes  himself;  but  we  will  rather  write 
about  what  occurred  when  King  Olaf  made  Norway 
Christian,  or  in  the  other  countries  in  which  he  ad- 
vanced Christianity.      The  same  autumn  Olaf  with 
his  fleet  returned  to  Drontheim,  and  landed  at  Nidaros, 
where  he  took  up  his  winter  abode.     What  I  am  now 
going  to  write  about  concerns  the  Icelanders. 

Kiartan  Olafsson,  a  son's  son  of  Hoskuld,  and  a    Chapter 

T  XXXVTTl 

daughter's  son  of  Egil  Skalagrimson,  came  the  same  of  the  ice- 
autumn  from  Iceland  to  Nidaros,  and  he  was  consi-  ^^"^^"^s- 
dered  to  be  the  most  agreeable  and  hopeful  man  of 
any  born  in  Iceland.  There  was  also  Haldor,  a  son 
of  Gudmund  of  Modrovald  ;  and  Kolbein,  a  son  of 
Thord,  Frey's  godar,  and  a  brother's  son  of  Brenno- 
Flose ;  together  with  Swerting,  a  son  of  the  godar 
Runolf.  All  these  were  heathens  ;  and  besides  them 
there  were  many  more,  —  some  men  of  power,  others 

VOL.  I.  G  G 


450  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.    common  men  of  no  property.     There  came  also  from 
Iceland   considerable  people,  who,   by  Thangbrand's 
help,  had  been  made  Christians;  namely,  Gissur White, 
a  son  of  Teit  Retilbiornson ;  and  his  mother  was  Alofa, 
daughter  of  Herse  Bodvar  who  was  the  viking  Kare's 
son.     Bodvar's  brother  was  Sigurd  father   of  Eric 
Biodascalla  whose  daughter  Astrid  was  King  Olaf  ^s 
mother.  Hialte  Skeggiason  was  the  name  of  another  Ice- 
land man,  who  was  married  to  Vilborg,  Gissur  White's 
daughter.      Hialte  was    also  a  Christian  ;   and  King 
Olaf  was  very  friendly  to  his  relations  Gissur  and 
Hialte,  who  lived  with  him.     But  the  Iceland  men 
who  directed  the  ships,  and  were  heathens,  tried  to 
sail  away  as  soon  as  the  king  came  to  the  town  of 
Nidaros,  for  they  were  told  the  king  forced  all  men 
to  become  Christians ;  but  the  wind  came  stiff  against 
them,  and  drove  them  back  to  Nidarholm.    They  who 
directed  the  ships  were  Thorarin  Nefiulsson,  the  scald 
Halfred  Ottarson,  Brand  the  Generous,  and  Thorleik 
Brand's  son.     It  was  told  the  king  that  there  were 
Icelanders  with  ships  there,  and  all  were  heathen,  and 
wanted  to  fly  from  a  meeting  "with  the  king.     Then 
the  king  sent  them  a  message  forbidding  them  to  sail, 
and  ordering  them  to  bring  their  ships  up  to  the  town, 
which  they  did,  but  without  discharging  the  cargoes. 
They  carried  on  their  dealings  and  held  a  market  at 
the  king's  pier.     In  spring  they  tried  three  times  to 
slip  away,  but  never  succeeded ;  so  they  continued 
lying  at  the  king's  pier.     It  happened  one  fine  day 
that  many  set  out  to  swim  for  amusement,  and  among 
them  was  a  man  who  distinguished  himself  above  the 
the  others  in  all  bodily  exercises.    Kiartan  challenged 
Halfred  Vandrsedaskald  to  try  himself  in  swimming 
against  this  man,  but  he  declined  it.     "  Then  will  I 
make  a  trial,"   said  Kiartan,  casting  off  his  clothes, 
and  springing  into  the  water.     Then  he  set  after  the 
man,  seizes  hold  of  his  foot,  and  dives  with  him  under 
water.     They  come  up  again,  and  without  speaking 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


451 


SAGA  VI. 


a  word  dive  again,  and  are  much  longer  under  water 
than  the  first  time.  They  come  up  again,  and  with- 
out saying  a  word  dive  a  third  time,  until  Kiartan 
thought  it  was  time  to  come  up  again,  which,  however, 
he  could  in  no  way  accomplish,  which  showed  suffi- 
ciently the  difference  in  their  strength.  They  were 
under  water  so  long  that  Kiartan  was  almost  drowned. 
They  then  came  up,  and  swam  to  land.  This  North- 
man asked  what  the  Icelander's  name  was.  Kiartan 
tells  his  name. 

He  says,  "  Thou  art  a  good  swimmer;  but  art  thou 
expert  also  in  other  exercises  ?  " 

Kiartan  replied,  that  such  expertness  was  of  no 
great  value. 

The  Northman  asks,  ''  Why  dost  thou  not  inquire 
of  me  such  things  as  I  have  asked  thee  about  ?  " 

Kiartan  replies,  ''It  is  all  one  to  me  who  thou  art, 
or  what  thy  name  is." 

"  Then  will  I,"  says  he,  "  tell  thee :  I  am  Olaf 
Tryggvesson." 

He  asked  Kiartan  much  about  Iceland,  which  he 
answered  generally,  and  wanted  to  withdraw  as  hastily 
as  he  could;  but  the  king  said,  "Here  is  a  cloak  which 
I  will  give  thee,  Kiartan."  And  Kiartan  took  the  cloak 
with  many  thanks. 

When  Michaelmas  came,  the  king  had  high  mass 
sung  with  great  splendour.  The  Icelanders  went 
there,  and  listened  to  the  fine  singing;  and  the  sound  tis^ofthe 

^      ^  .  .  Icelanders 

of  the  bells  ;  and  when  they  came  back  to  their  ships 
every  man  told  his  opinion  of  the  Christian  man's 
worship.  Kiartan  expressed  his  pleasure  at  it,  but 
most  of  the  others  scofi*ed  at  it ;  and  it  went  accord- 
ing to  the  proverb,  "  the  king  has  many  ears,"  for 
this  was  told  to  the  king.  He  sent  immediately  that 
very  day  a  message  to  Kiartan  to  come  to  him.  Kiartan 
went  to  the  king  with  some  men,  and  the  king  re- 
ceived him  kindly.      Kiartan  was  a  very  stout  and 

G  G  2 


Chapter 
LXXXIX. 

Of  the  bap- 


452 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XC. 
Halfred 
the  scald 
baptized. 


handsome  man,  and  of  ready  and  agreeable  speech. 
After  the  king  and  Kiartan  had  conversed  a  little,  the 
king  asked  him  to  adopt  Christianity.  Kiartan  replies, 
that  he  would  not  say  no  to  that,  if  he  thereby  obtained 
the  king's  friendship;  and  as  the  king  promised  him  the 
fullest  friendship,  they  were  soon  agreed.  The  next  day 
Kiartan  was  baptized,  together  with  his  relation  Bolle 
Thorleikson,  and  all  their  fellow-travellers.  Kiartan 
and  Bolle  were  the  king's  guests  as  long  as  they  were 
in  their  white  baptismal  clothes,  and  the  king  had 
much  kindness  for  them.  Wherever  they  came  they 
were  looked  upon  as  people  of  distinction. 

As  King  Olaf  one  day  was  walking  in  the  street 
some  men  met  him,  and  he  who  went  the  foremost 
saluted  the  king.  The  king  asked  the  man  his  name, 
and  he  called  himself  Halfred. 

"  Art  thou  the  scald  ?  "  said  the  kinof. 

"  I  can  compose  poetry,"  replied  he. 

"  Wilt  thou  then  adopt  Christianity,  and  come  into 
my  service  ?  '*  asked  the  king. 

"  If  I  am  baptized,"  replies  he,  "  it  must  be  on 
one  condition, — that  thou  thyself  art  my  godfather; 
for  no  other  will  I  have." 

The  king  replies,  "  That  I  will  do."  And  Halfred 
was  baptized,  the  king  holding  him  during  the  bap- 
tism. 

Afterwards  the  king  said,  "  Wilt  thou  enter  into 
my  service?" 

Halfred  replied,  "  I  was  formerly  in  Earl  Hakon's 
court ;  but  now  I  will  neither  enter  into  thine  nor  into 
any  other  service,  unless  thou  promise  me  it  shall 
never  be  my  lot  to  be  driven  away  from  thee." 

" It  has  been  reported  to  me,"  said  the  king,  "that 
thou  art  neither  so  prudent  nor  so  obedient  as  to 
fulfil  my  commands." 

"  In  that  case,"  replied  Halfred,  "  put  me  to  death." 

"  Thou  art  a  scald  who  composes  difficulties,"  says 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY. 


453 


the  king ;  "  but  into  my  service,  Halfred,  thou  shalt    saga  vj. 
be  received." 

Halfred  says,  "  If  I  am  to  be  named  the  composer 
of  difficulties*,  what  dost  thou  give  me,  king,  on  my 
name-day?" 

The  king  gave  him  a  sword  without  a  scabbard, 
and  said,  "  Now  compose  me  a  song  upon  this  sword, 
and  let  the  word  sword  be  in  every  line  of  the  verses." 
Halfred  sang  thus :  — 

"  This  sword  of  swords  is  my  reward. 
For  him  who  knows  to  wield  a  sword. 
And  with  his  sword  to  serve  his  lord, 
Yet  wants  a  sword,  his  lot  is  hard. 
I  would  I  had  my  good  lord's  leave 
For  this  good  sword  a  sheath  to  choose  ; 
I'm  worth  three  swords  where  men  swords  use_, 
But  for  the  sword-sheath  now  I  grieve." 

Then  the  king  gave  him  the  scabbard,  observing 
that  the  word  sword  was  wanting  in  one  line  of  his 
strophe.  ^'  But  there  are  three  swords  at  least  in 
two  other  lines,"  says  Halfred.  ''  So  it  is,"  replies 
the  king.f — Out  of  Halfred' s  lays  we  have  taken  the 
most  of  the  true  and  faithful  accounts  that  are  here 
related  about  Olaf  Tryggvesson. 

The    same  harvest  Thangbrand  the    priest  came 
back  from  Iceland  to  King  Olaf,  and  told  the  ill  suc- 
cess of  his  iourney;  namely,  that  the  Icelanders  had  hrand  the 
o  J  '     ^  1  priest  re- 

made lampoons  about  him ;  and  that  some  even  sought  turns  from 

Iceland. 


Chapter 
XCI. 
Thans:- 


*  Vandraedascald  —  the  despair  of  scalds,  or  the  difficult  scald. 

t  From  this  dialogue,  which  we  may  fairly  take  as  a  true  represent- 
ation of  the  tone  of  conversation,  and  very  likely  of  the  words,  between 
a  king  and  a  man  of  literature  or  scald  in  the  10th  century,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  there  was  a  considerable  taste  for  the  compositions  of 
scalds,  and  for  intellectual  effort;  but  that  this  taste  was  gratified  by 
the  art  of  verse-making — by  the  reproduction  of  words,  letters,  metres, 
in  difficult  technical  circumstances  —  much  more  than  by  the  spirit  of 
poetry.  It  is  likely  that  in  all  ages,  and  even  among  individuals,  the 
taste  for  the  simple  and  natural  in  poetry  is  the  last,  not  the  first,  deve- 
loped taste.  It  is  the  savage  who  loves  frippery  in  dress,  and  in  what 
addresses  itself  to  taste. 

G  G    3 


454 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XCII. 
Of  King 
Olaf's  feats. 


to  kill  him,  and  there  was  little  hope  of  that  country 
ever  being  made  Christian.  King  Olaf  was  so  enraged 
at  this,  that  he  ordered  all  the  Icelanders  to  be  assem- 
bled by  sound  of  horn,  and  was  going  to  kill  all  who 
were  in  the  town ;  but  Kiartan,  Gissur,  and  Hialte, 
with  the  other  Icelanders  who  had  become  Christians, 
went  to  him,  and  said,  "King,  thou  must  not  fall 
from  thy  word,  —  that  however  much  any  man  may 
irritate  thee,  thou  wilt  forgive  him  if  he  turn  from 
heathenism  and  become  Christian.  All  the  Icelanders 
here  are  willing  to  be  baptized ;  and  through  them 
we  may  find  means  to  bring  Christianity  into  Iceland  : 
for  there  are  many  amongst  them,  sons  of  consider- 
able people  in  Iceland,  whose  friends  can  advance  the 
cause  ;  but  the  priest  Thangbrand  proceeded  there  as 
he  did  here  in  the  court,  with  violence  and  man- 
slaughter, and  such  conduct  the  people  there  would 
not  submit  to.''  The  king  hearkened  to  these  remon- 
strances ;  and  all  the  Iceland  men  who  were  there 
were  baptized. 

King  Olaf  was  more  expert  in  all  exercises  than 
any  man  in  Norway  whose  memory  is  preserved  to 
us  in  sagas ;  and  he  was  stronger  and  more  agile  than 
most  men,  and  many  stories  are  written  down  about 
it.  One  is,  that  he  ascended  the  Smalsor  Horn  *,  and 
fixed  his  shield  uj)on  the  very  peak.  Another  is, 
that  one  of  his  followers  had  climbed  up  the  peak 
after  him,  until  he  came  to  where  he  could  neither  get 
up  nor  down ;  but  the  king  came  to  his  help,  climbed 
up  to  him,  took  him  under  his  arm,  and  bore  him  to 
the  flat  ground.  King  Olaf  could  run  across  the  oars 
outside  of  the  vessel  while  his  men  were  rowing  the 
Serpent.  He  could  play  with  three  daggers,  so  that 
one  was  always  in  the  air,  and  he  took  the  one  falhng 
by  the  handle.     He  could  walk  all  round  upon  the 

*  Now  called  Hornelen, — an  inaccessible  peak  or  needle  on  the  sum- 
mit of  a  mountain  in  Bremanger. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  455 

ship's  rails,  could  strike  and  cut  equally  well  mth  both  saga  vi. 
hands,  and  could  cast  two  spears  at  once.  King  Olaf 
was  a  very  merry  frolicsome  man  ;  gay  and  social ;  had 
great  taste  in  every  thing ;  was  very  generous ;  was 
very  finical  in  his  dress,  but  in  battle  he  exceeded  all 
in  bravery.  He  was  distinguished  for  cruelty  when 
he  was  enraged,  and  tortured  many  of  his  enemies. 
Some  he  burnt  in  fire ;  some  he  had  torn  in  pieces  by 
mad  dogs ;  some  he  had  mutilated,  or  cast  down  from 
liigli  precipices.  On  this  account  his  friends  were 
attached  to  him  warmly,  and  his  enemies  feared  him 
greatly ;  and  thus  he  made  such  a  fortunate  advance 
in  his  undertakings,  for  some  obeyed  his  will  out  of 
the  friendliest  zeal,  and  others  out  of  dread. 

Leif,  a  son  of  Eric  Rode,  who  first  settled  in  Green-    Chapter 
land,  came  this  summer  from  Greenland  to  Norway;  ofthebap- 
and  as  he  met  kins;  Olaf  he  adopted  Christianity,  and  tismofLeif 

Jijricssoii. 

passed  the  winter  with  the  king. 

Gudrod,  a  son  of  Eric  Bloodyaxe  and  Gunhild  the    Chapter 

Mother  of  Kings,  had  been  ravaging  in  the  western  paii  of 

countries  ever  since  he  fled  from  Norway  before  the  ^"^70^, 

•^  the  last  or 

Earl  Hakon.  But  the  summer  before  mentioned,  when  eHc's  and 
King  Olaf  Tryggvesson  had  ruled  four  years  over  """  ^ 
Norway,  Gudrod  came  to  the  country,  and  had  many 
ships  of  war  with  him.  He  had  sailed  from  England  ; 
and  when  he  thought  himself  near  to  the  Norway 
coast,  he  steered  south  along  the  land,  to  the  quarter 
where  it  was  least  likely  King  Olaf  would  be.  Gudrod 
sailed  in  this  way  south  to  Viken ;  and  as  soon  as  he 
came  to  the  land  began  to  plunder,  to  subject  the 
people  to  him,  and  to  demand  that  they  should  accept 
of  him  as  king.  Now  as  the  country  people  saw  that 
a  great  army  was  come  upon  them,  they  desired  peace 
and  terms.  They  ofi'ered  King  Gudrod  to  send  a  Thing- 
message  over  all  the  country,  and  to  accept  of  him  at 
the  Thing  as  king,  rather  than  suffer  from  his  army ; 
but  they  desired  delay  until  a  fixed  day,  while  the 

G  G  4 


sons. 


456 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 

xcv. 

The  build- 
ing of  the 
ship  Long 
Serpent. 


token  of  the  Thing's  assembling  was  going  round 
through  the  land.  The  king  demanded  maintenance 
during  the  time  this  delay  lasted.  The  bonders  pre- 
ferred entertaining  the  king  as  a  guest,  by  turns,  as 
long  as  he  required  it ;  and  the  king  accepted  of  the 
proposal  to  go  about  with  some  of  his  men  as  a  guest 
from  place  to  place  in  the  land,  while  others  of  his 
men  remained  to  guard  the  ships.  When  King  Olaf 's 
relations,  Hyrning  and  Thorgeir,  heard  of  this,  they 
gathered  men,  fitted  out  ships,  and  went  northwards 
to  Yiken.  They  came  in  the  night  with  their  men 
to  a  place  at  which  King  Gudrod  was  living  as  a  guest, 
and  attacked  him  with  fire  and  weapons ;  and  there 
King  Gudrod  fell,  and  most  of  his  followers.  Of  those 
who  were  with  his  ships  some  were  killed,  some 
slipped  away  and  fled  to  great  distances  ;  and  now 
were  all  the  sons  of  Eric  and  Gunhild  dead. 

The  winter  after  King  Olaf  came  from  Halogaland, 
he  had  a  great  vessel  built  at  Ladehammer*,  Avhich 
was  larger  than  any  ship  in  the  country,  and  of  which 
the  beam-knees  are  still  to  be  seen.  The  length  of 
keel  that  rested  upon  the  grass  was  seventy -four  ells. 
Thorberg  Skafting  was  the  man's  name  who  was  the 
master-builder  of  the  ship ;  but  there  were  many 
others  besides,  —  some  to  fell  wood,  some  to  shape  it, 
some  to  make  nails,  some  to  carry  timber  f ;  and  all 
that  was  used  was  of  the  best.  The  ship  was  both 
long  and  broad  and  high-sided,  and  strongly  timbered. 
While  they  were  planking  the  ship,  it  happened  that 
Thorberg  had  to  go  home  to  his  farm  upon  some  urgent 


*  Ladehammar,  —  the  knob  or  point  of  land  below  the  house  of  Lade, 
still  known  by  the  same  name.      Lade  is  close  to  Drontheim. 

■j"  This  division  of  labour  and  trades,  and  this  building  of  a  vessel 
equal  in  length  to  a  frigate  of  forty  guns_,  give  a  curious  peep  at  the 
civilisation  of  these  pagans  in  the  10th  century,  and  of  the  state  of  the 
useful  arts  among  them.  We  need  not  be  surprised  that  a  people  who 
had  master-carpenters  among  them  had  scalds  —  the  useful  and  the 
fine  arts  keep  some  kind  of  pace  together. 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  457 

business  ;  and  as  he  remained  there  a  long  time,  the  saga  vi. 
ship  was  planked  up  on  both  sides  when  he  came  back. 
In  the  evening  the  king  went  out,  and  Thorberg  with 
him,  to  see  how  the  vessel  looked,  and  every  body  said 
that  never  was  seen  so  large  and  so  beautiful  a  ship  of 
war.  Then  the  king  returned  to  the  town.  Early 
next  morning  the  king  returns  again  to  the  ship,  and 
Thorberg  with  him.  The  carpenters  were  there  before 
them,  but  all  were  standing  idle  with  their  arms  across. 
The  king  asked  "  what  was  the  matter?"  They  said 
the  ship  was  destroyed ;  for  somebody  had  gone  from 
stem  to  stern,  and  cut  one  deep  notch  after  the  other 
down  the  one  side  of  the  planking.  When  the  king 
came  nearer  he  saw  it  was  so,  and  said,  with  an  oath, 
"  The  man  shall  die  who  has  thus  destroyed  the 
vessel  out  of  envy,  if  he  can  be  discovered,  and  I  shall 
bestow  a  great  reward  on  whoever  finds  him  out." 

''I  can  tell  you,  king,"  says  Thorberg,  ''who  has 
done  this  piece  of  work." 

"  I  don't  think,"  replies  the  king,  "  that  any  one  is 
so  likely  to  find  it  out  as  thou  art." 

"  Thorberg  says,  "  I  will  tell  you,  king,  who  did  it. 
I  did  it  myself." 

"  The  king  says,  "  Thou  must  restore  it  all  to  the 
same  condition  as  before,  or  thy  life  shall  pay  for  it." 

Then  Thorberg  went  and  chipped  the  planks  until 
the  deep  notches  were  all  smoothed  and  made  even 
with  the  rest ;  and  the  king  and  all  present  declared 
that  the  ship  was  much  handsomer  on  the  side  of  the 
hull  which  Thorberg  had  chipped,  and  bade  him  shape 
the  other  side  in  the  same  way,  and  gave  him  great 
thanks  for  the  improvement.  Afterwards  Thorberg 
was  the  master-builder  of  the  ship  until  she  was  en- 
tirely finished.  The  ship  was  a  dragon,  built  after 
the  one  the  king  had  captured  in  Halogaland;  but 
this  ship  was  far  larger,  and  more  carefully  put 
together  in  all  her  parts.     The  king  called  this  ship 


458 


CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XCVL 

Of  Earl 

Eric,  the 

son  of 

Hakon. 


Serpent  the  Long,  and  the  other  Serpent  the  Short. 
The  long  Serpent  had  thirty-four  benches  for  rowers. 
The  head  and  the  arched  tail  were  both  gilt,  and  the 
bulwarks  were  as  high  as  in  sea-going  ships.  This 
ship  was  the  best  and  most  costly  ship  ever  made 
in  Norway. 

Earl  Eric,  the  son  of  Earl  Hakon,  and  his  brother, 
with  many  other  valiant  men  their  relations,  had  left 
the  country  after  Earl  Hakon's  fall.  Earl  Eric  went 
eastward  to  Sweden,  to  Olaf  the  Swedish  king,  and 
he  and  his  people  were  well  received.  King  Olaf  gave 
the  earl  peace  and  freedom  in  the  land,  and  great  fiefs  ; 
so  that  he  could  support  himself  and  his  men  well. 
Thord  Kolbeinsson  speaks  of  this  in  the  verses  before 
given. ^  Many  people  who  fled  from  the  country  on 
account  of  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson  came  out  of  Nor- 
way to  Earl  Eric ;  and  the  earl  resolved  to  fit  out 
ships  and  go  a  cruising,  in  order  to  get  property  for 
himself  and  his  people.  First  he  steered  to  Gotland, 
and  lay  there  long  in  summer  watching  for  merchant 
vessels  sailing  towards  the  land,  or  for  vikings.  Some- 
times he  landed  and  ravaged  all  round  upon  the  sea- 
coasts.     So  it  is  told  in  the  ''  Banda-drapa : " — 

''  Eric,  as  we  have  lately  heard, 

Has  waked  the  song  of  shield  and  sword, — 
Has  waked  the  slumbering  storm  of  shields 
Upon  the  vikings'  water-fields  : 
From  Gotland's  lonely  shore  has  gone 
Far  up  the  land,  and  battles  won; 
And  o'er  the  sea  his  name  is  spread, 
To  friends  a  shield,  to  foes  a  dread." 

Afterwards  Earl  Eric  sailed  south  to  Yendland,  and 
at  Staurin  found  some  viking  ships,  and  gave  them 
battle.  Eric  gained  the  victory,  and  slew  the  vikings. 
So  it  is  told  in  the  "  Banda-drapa :" — 

"  Earl  Eric,  he  who  stoutly  wields 
The  battle-axe  in  storm  of  shields, 


*   In  the  verses  given  in  Chapter  57-  of  this  Saga. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


459 


With  his  long-ships  surprised  the  foe  saga  vi. 

At  Staurin,  and  their  strength  laid  low. 

Many  a  corpse  floats  round  the  shore ; 

The  strand  with  dead  is  studded  o'er ; 

The  raven  tears  their  sea-bleached  skins  — 

The  land  thrives  well  when  Eric  wins." 

Earl  Eric  sailed  back  to  Sweden  in  autumn,  and    5"^™ 
staid  there  all  winter ;  but  m  spring  he  fitted  out  his  Eari  Eric's 
war  force  again,  and  sailed  up  the  Baltic.     When  he  [he^Baitic 
came  to  Valdemar's  dominions  he  began  to  plunder  coasts. 
and  kill  the  inhabitants,  and  burn  the  dwellings  every- 
where as  he  came  along,  and  to  lay  waste  the  country. 
He  came  to  Aldeigioburg *,  and  besieged  it  until  he 
took  the  castle ;    and  he  killed  many  people,  broke 
down  and  burned  the  castle,  and  then  carried  destruc- 
tion all  around  far  and  wide  in  Russia.     So  it  is  told 
in  the  ''  Banda-drapa : " — 

'^  The  generous  earl,  brave  and  bold. 
Who  scatters  his  bright  shining  gold, 
Eric,  with  fire-scattering  hand, 
Wasted  the  Russian  monarch's  land, — 
With  arrow-shower,  and  storm  of  war. 
Wasted  the  land  of  Waldemar. 
Aldeigia  burns,  and  Eric's  might 
Scours  through  all  Russia  by  its  light." 

Earl  Eric  was  five  years  in  all  on  this  foray;  and 
when  he  returned  from  Russia  he  ravaged  all  Adal- 
sy ssel  and  Eysy ssel  f ,  and  took  there  four  viking  ships 
from  the  Danes,  and  killed  every  man  on  board.  So 
it  is  told  in  the  "  Banda-drapa :"  — 

"  Among  the  isles  flies  round  the  word. 
That  Eric's  blood-devouring  sword 
Has  flashed  like  fire  in  the  Sound, 
And  wasted  all  the  land  around. 


*  Aldeigioborg  is  the  town  at  Aldeigia  or  the  Ladoga  lake,  and  is 
supposed  to  be  the  present  town  of  Notaburg,  on  an  island  in  this  lake. 

I  Estland  was  the  country  along  the  Gulph  of  Finland,  as  far  west 
as  the  Vistula;  and  Eysyssel  was  the  district  of  the  islands  of  Osel 
and  others  along  this  coast.  Adalsyssel  was  the  district  on  the  main- 
land opposite  to  Eysyssel. 


460 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
XCVIII. 

King 

Swend's 

marriage. 


And  Eric  too,  the  bold  in  fight. 
Has  broken  down  the  robber-might 
Of  four  great  vikings,  and  has  slain 
All  of  the  crew  —  nor  spared  one  Dane. 
In  Gotland  he  has  seized  the  town. 
In  Syssels  harried  up  and  down  ; 
And  all  the  people  in  dismay 
Fled  to  the  forests  far  away. 
By  land  or  sea,  in  field  or  wave. 
What  can  withstand  this  earl  brave  ? 
All  fly  before  his  fiery  hand  — 
God  save  the  earl,  and  keep  the  land." 

When  Eric  had  been  a  year  in  Sweden  he  went 
over  to  Denmark  to  King  Swend  the  Forked-bearded, 
the  Danish  king,  and  courted  his  daughter  Gyda.  The 
proposal  was  accepted,  and  Earl  Eric  married  Gyda ; 
and  a  year  after  they  had  a  son,  who  was  called  Hakon. 
Earl  Eric  was  in  the  winter  in  Denmark,  or  sometimes 
in  Sweden ;  but  in  summer  he  went  a  cruising. 

The  Danish  king,  Swend  Forked  Beard*,  was  married 

*  Sweinn  or  Swend  Forked  Beard  (Tiuguskegg)  was  the  conqueror 
of  England,  and  father  of  Canute  the  Great.  We  retain  the  word 
swein  in  swain,  boatswain,  coxswain,  and  other  words,  in  the  same 
signification  as  swein  and  swend  have  in  the  northern  languages. 
He  was  the  son  of  King  Harald  Gormson,  whose  father,  Gorm  the  Old, 
was  the  first  sole  king  of  Denmark.  Gorm  the  Old,  Harald  Haarfager, 
and  Eric  Emundsson  of  Sweden,  were  contemporaries,  and  three  re- 
markable men,  who,  about  the  middle  of  the  9th  century,  got  the  supreme 
power  in  their  respective  dominions,  and  put  down  the  small  kings.  Eric 
the  Victorious,  a  grandson  of  Eric  Emundsson,  gained  a  battle  at  Fyrisvol, 
near  Upsal,  in  983,  against  his  brother's  son,  Styrbiorn  the  Strong,  who 
was  aided  by  Harald  Gormson  of  Denmark;  and  in  the  war  which  en- 
sued between  Sweden  and  Denmark,  Swein,  Harald's  son,  was  driven 
from  his  kingdom.  Eric's  first  wife  was  Sigrid  the  Haughty.  He 
divorced  her  after  she  had  a  son  by  him  called  Olaf.  This  Olaf,  called 
Olaf  the  Swede,  and  the  Lap-king,  from  having  been  king  while  still  in 
his  nurse's  lap,  was  the  Olaf  of  whom  so  much  is  related  in  the  Saga  of 
Saint  Olaf.  This  Sigrid,  the  same  who  burnt  Harald  Graenske,  and 
whom  Olaf  Tryggvesson  insulted  by  striking  her  with  his  glove,  married 
Swein,  who  recovered  back  his  kingdom  by  this  marriage  from  his  step- 
son, Olaf  the  Swede.  According  to  the  saga,  this  Sigrid's  desire  of  re- 
venge for  the  insult  she  had  received  from  Olaf  Tryggvesson  occasioned 
the  combination  which  defeated  and  slew  Olaf.  The  peace,  established 
by  this  marriage  between  Sweden  and  Denmark,  enabled  Swein  to  leave 
his  dominions  and  make  war  in  England.  Olaf  the  Swede  died  in  1024, 
and  was  the  first  Christian  king  of  Sweden. 


Burislaf's 
marriage. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  461 

to  Gunhild,  a  daughter  of  Burislaf  king  of  the  Vends,  ^aga  vt. 
But  in  the  times  we  have  just  been  speaking  of  it 
happened  that  Queen  Gunhild  fell  sick,  and  died.  Soon 
after  King  Swend  married  Sigrid  the  Haughty,  a 
daughter  of  Skoglar  Toste,  and  mother  of  the  Swedish 
king  Olaf ;  and  by  means  of  this  relationship  there 
was  great  friendship  between  the  kings  and  Earl  Eric, 
Hakon's  son. 

Burislaf,  the  king  of  the  Vends,  complained  to  his  Chapter 
relation  Earl  Sigvald,  that  the  agreement  was  broken  King 
which  Sigvald  had  made  between  King  Swend  and  King 
Burislaf,  by  which  Burislaf  was  to  get  in  marriage 
Thyri,  Harald's  daughter,  a  sister  of  King  Swend :  but 
that  marriage  had  not  proceeded,  for  Thyri  had  given  a 
positive  no  to  the  proposal  to  marry  her  to  an  old  and 
heathen  king.  ''  Now,"  said  King  Burislaf  to  Earl  Sig- 
vald, "  I  must  have  the  promise  fulfilled."  And  he  told 
Earl  Sigvald  to  go  to  Denmark,  and  bring  him  Thyri 
as  his  queen.  Earl  Sigvald  loses  no  time,  but  goes  to 
King  Swend  of  Denmark  ;  explains  to  him  the  case ; 
and  brings  it  so  far  by  his  persuasion,  that  the  king 
delivered  his  sister  Thyri  into  his  hands.  With  her 
went  some  female  attendants,  and  her  foster-father,  by 
name  Otsur  Aakeson,  a  man  of  great  power,  and  some 
other  people.  In  the  agreement  between  the  king  and 
the  earl,  it  was  settled  that  Thyri  should  have  in  pro- 
perty the  possessions  which  Queen  Gunhild  had  en- 
joyed in  Vendland,  besides  other  great  properties  as 
bride-gifts.  Thyri  wept  sorely,  and  went  very  unwill- 
ingly. When  the  earl  came  to  Vendland,  Burislaf 
held  his  wedding  with  Queen  Thyri,  and  received  her 
in  marriage ;  but  as  long  as  she  was  among  heathens 
she  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  with  them,  and  this 
lasted  for  seven  days. 

It  happened  one  night  that  Queen  Thyri  and  Otsur  Chapter 
ran  away  in  the  dark,  and  into  the  woods,  and,  to  be  King  biaf 
short  in  our  story,  came  at  last  to  Denmark.     But  s^^^'^^y" 

»/  '  in  mar- 

riaare. 


462  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 


SAGA  VI 


•    there  Thyri  did  not  dare  to  remain,  knowing  that  if 
her  brother  King  Swend  heard  of  her,  he  would  send 
her  back  directly  to  Yendland.     She  went  on,  there- 
fore, secretly  to  Norway,  and  never  stayed  her  jour- 
ney until  she  fell  in  with  King  Olaf,  by  whom  she 
was  kindly  received.     Thyri  related  to  the  king  her 
sorrows,  and  entreated  his  advice  in  her  need,  and 
protection  in  his  kingdom.     Thyri  was  a  well-spoken 
woman,  and  the  king  had  pleasure  in  her  conversa- 
tion.    He  saw  she  was  a  handsome  woman,  and  it 
came  into  his  mind  that  she  would  be  a  good  match ; 
so  he  turns  the  conversation  that  way,  and  asks  if 
she  will  marry  him.     Now,  as  she  saw  that  her  situa- 
tion was  such  that  she  could  not  help  herself,  and 
considered  what  a  luck  it  was  for  her  to  marry  so 
celebrated  a  man,  she  bade  him  to  dispose  himself  of 
her  hand  and  fate ;  and,  after  nearer  conversation, 
King  Olaf  took  Thyri  in  marriage.     This  wedding 
was  held  in  harvest,   after  the  king  returned  from 
Halogaland ;  and  King   Olaf  and   Queen   Thyri  re- 
mained all  winter  at  Nidaros.     The  following  spring 
Queen  Thyri  complained  often  to  King   Olaf,   and 
wept  bitterly  over  it,  that  she  who  had  so  great  pro- 
perty in  Yendland  had  no  goods  or  possessions  here 
in  the  country  that  were  suitable  for  a  queen ;  and 
sometimes  she  would  entreat  the  king  mth  fine  words 
to  get  her  property  restored  to  her,  and  saying  that 
King  Burislaf  was  so  great  a  friend  of  King  Olaf  that 
he  would  not  deny  King  Olaf  any  thing  if  they  were 
to  meet.    But  when  King  Olaf 's  friends  heard  of  such 
speeches,  they  dissuaded  him  from  any  such   expe- 
dition.    It  is  related  that  the  king  one  day  early  in 
spring  was  walking  in  the  street,  and  met  a  man 
in  the  market  with  many,  and,  for  that  early  season, 
remarkably  large  angelica  roots.     The  king  took  a 
great  stalk  of  the  angelica  in  his   hand,   and  went 
home  to  Queen  Thyri's  lodging.     Thyri  sat  in  her 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY.  463 

room  weeping  as  the  king  came  in.  The  king  said,  saga  vi. 
"  See  here,  queen,  is  a  great  angelica  stalk,  which  I 
give  thee."  She  threw  it  away,  and  said  "  A  greater 
present  Harald  Gormson  gave  to  my  mother ;  and  he 
Avas  not  afraid  to  go  out  of  the  land  and  take  his  own. 
That  Avas  shown  when  he  came  here  to  Norway,  and 
laid  waste  the  greater  part  of  the  land,  and  seized  on 
all  the  scatt  and  revenues ;  and  thou  darest  not  go 
across  the  Danish  dominions  for  this  brother  of  mine, 
King  Swend."  As  she  spoke  thus.  King  Olaf  sprang 
up,  and  answered  with  a  loud  oath,  "  Never  did  I 
fear  thy  brother  King  Swend ;  and  if  we  meet  he  shall 
give  way  before  me ! " 

Soon  after  the  king  convoked  a  Thing  in  the  town,  Chapter 
and  proclaimed  to  all  the  public,  that  in  summer  he  oiaf 's  levy 
would  go  abroad  upon  an  expedition  out  of  the  coun-  ^"^  ^^^^• 
try,  and  would  raise  both  ships  and  men  from  every 
district ;  and  at  the  same  time  fixed  how  many  ships 
he  would  have  from  the  whole  Drontheim  fiord. 
Then  he  sent  his  message-token  south  and  north, 
both  along  the  sea  coast  and  up  in  the  interior  of  the 
country,  to  let  an  army  be  gathered.  The  king  or- 
dered the  Long  Serpent  to  be  put  into  the  water,  along 
with  all  his  other  ships  both  small  and  great.  He 
himself  steered  the  Long  Serpent.  When  the  crews 
were  taken  out  for  the  ships,  they  were  so  carefully 
selected  that  no  man  on  board  the  Long  Serpent  was 
older  than  sixty  or  younger  than  twenty  years,  and 
all  were  men  distinguished  for  strength  and  courage. 
Those  who  were  Olaf's  body-guard  were  in  particu- 
lar chosen  men,  both  of  the  country  and  foreigners*, 
and  the  boldest  and  strongest. 

Ulf  Rode  was  the  name  of  the  man  who  bore  Kins;    Chapter 

CIT 

Olaf's  banner,  and  was  in  the  forecastle  of  the  Long  The  crew 
Serpent ;  and  with  him  was  Kiolbiorn  the  marshal,  ^]}  J'^'V''^ 

^  '    of  the  Long 

Serpent. 

*   Foreigners  were  kept  in  pay  even  at  that  time  in  the  body-guard 
of  the  kings. 


464  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.  and  Yikar  of  Tiundaland,  and  Thorstein  Oxefod,  bro- 
thers of  Arnliot  Gellina.  By  the  bulkhead  next  the 
forecastle  were  Yakur  Elfski  Raumason,  Birse  Bolla- 
son  the  Strong,  An  Skyti  from  Jemteland,  Thrand 
Rame  from  Thelemark,  and  his  brother  Uthyrmer. 
Besides  these,  were,  of  Halogaland  men,  Thrand  Ski- 
alge  and  Ogmund  Sandi,  Lodver  Lang  from  Saltvig, 
and  Harek  Huase ;  together  with  these  Drontheim 
men  —  Ketil  Hane,  Thorfin  Eisli,  Haavard  and  his 
brothers  from  Orkadal.  The  following  were  in  the 
fore-hold :  Biorn  from  Studio,  Bork  from  the  Fiorde, 
Thorgrim  Thiodolfson  from  Huin,  Asbiorn  and  Orm, 
Thord  from  Mardarlog,  Thorstein  White  from  Ofro- 
stad,  Arnor  from  Masre,  Halstein  and  Hauk  from  the 
Fiord  district,  Eyvind  Snaker,  Berga  Bestill,  Halkel 
from  Fialer,  Olaf  Dreng,  Arnfin  from  Sogn,  Sigurd 
Bilde,  Einar  from  Hordaland,  and  Fin  and  Ketil 
from  Rogaland,  and  Griotgard  the  Brisk.  The  fol- 
lowing were  in  the  hold  next  the  mast :  Einar  Tam- 
barskelver,  who  was  not  reckoned  as  fully  experienced, 
being  only  eighteen  years  old;  Halstein  Hlifarson, 
Thorolf,  Ivar  Smette,  and  Orm  Skoganef.  Many 
other  vahant  men  were  in  the  Serpent,  although  we 
cannot  tell  all  their  names.  In  every  half  division  of 
the  hold  were  eight  men,  and  each  and  all  chosen 
men ;  and  in  the  fore-hold  were  thirty  men.  It  was  a 
common  saying  among  people,  that  the  Long  Ser- 
pent's crew  was  as  distinguished  for  bravery,  strength, 
and  daring,  among  other  men,  as  the  Long  Serpent 
was  distinguished  among  other  ships.  Thorkel  Nefia, 
the  king's  brother,  commanded  the  Short  Serpent ; 
and  Thorkel  Dyrdil  and  Jostein,  the  king's  mother's 
brothers,  had  the  Crane  ;  and  both  these  ships  were 
well  manned.  King  Olaf  had  eleven  large  ships  from 
Drontheim,  besides  vessels  with  twenty  rowers'  benches, 
Chapter  Smaller  vcsscls,  aud  provision-vessels, 
cm.  When  King  Olaf  had  nearly  rigged  out  his  fleet  in 

baptized.      Nidaros,  he  appointed  men  over  the  Drontheim  coun- 


KINGS    OF   NOKWAY.  465 

try  in  all  districts  and  communities.  He  also  sent  to  saga  vr. 
Iceland  Gissur  White  and  Hialte  Skeggiason,  to  pro- 
claim  Christianity  there  ;  and  sent  with  them  a  priest 
called  Thormod,  along  with  several  men  in  holy 
orders.  But  he  retained  with  him,  as  hostages,  four 
Icelanders  whom  he  thought  the  most  important ; 
namely,  Kiartan  Olafsson,  Haldor  Gudmundsson,  Kol- 
bein  Thordsson,  and  Swerting  Runalfsson.  Of  Gissur 
and  Hialte's  progress,  it  is  related  that  they  came  to 
Iceland  before  the  All-thing,  and  went  to  the  Thing ; 
and  in  that  Thing  Christianity  was  introduced  by  law 
into  Iceland,  and  in  the  course  of  the  summer  all  the 
people  were  baptized. 

The  same  spring  King  Olaf  also  sent  Leif  Ericsson    Chapter 
to  Greenland  to  proclaim  Christianity  there,  and  Leif  Greenland 
went   there   that    summer.     In  the    ocean   he   took  baptized. 
up  the  crew  of  a  ship  which  had  been  lost,  and  who 
were  clinging  to  the  wreck.     He  also  found  Vinland 
the  Good ;  arrived  about  harvest  in  Greenland ;  and  had 
with  him  for  it  a  priest  and  other  teachers,  with  whom 
he  went  to  Brattalid  to  lodge  with  his  father  Eric. 
People  called  him  afterwards  Leif  the  Lucky  ;  but  his 
father  Eric  said  that  his  luck  and  ill  luck  balanced 
each  other ;  for  if  Leif  had  saved  a  wreck  in  the  ocean, 
he  had  brought  a  hurtful  person  with  him  to  Green- 
land, and  that  was  the  priest.* 

*  There  are  eight  chapters  here  in  Peringskiold's  edition  of  the 
Heimskringla  which  relate  to  the  discovery  of  Vinland,  and  are  taken 
from  the  Codex  Flatoyensis,  but  are  not  in  the  manuscripts  of  the 
Heimskringla  known  to  the  Danish  antiquaries.  They  are  supposed  to 
have  been  an  interpolation  in  the  manuscript  which  Peringskiold  had 
before  him,  but  which  is  not  now  to  be  found.  That  they  are  an  in- 
terpolation is  manifest,  because  they  have  no  reference  to  or  connection 
with  the  events  or  personages  before  them  or  after  them  in  Snorro's 
narrative,  and  interrupt  Olaf  Tryggvesson's  history  at  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  period;  but  all  Snorro's  incidents  and  personages 
in  his  episodes  reappear  and  conduce  to  his  story,  as  in  real  life,  or  as 
in  Homer's  practice  or  Horace's  precepts  of  the  construction  of  an  epic. 
This  artistical  management  of  his  tale  is  one  of  the  beauties  of  Snorro's 
VOL.  I.  H  H 


4:6G  CHRONICLE    OF   THE 

sAGAvi.        The  winter  after  King  Olaf  had  baptized  Haloga- 

Chapteb    land,  he  and  Queen  Thyri  were  in  Nidaros ;  and  the 

EariRogn-  summer  before  Queen  Thyri  had  brought  King  Olaf 

vaid  sends    ^  bov-child,  which  was  both  stout  and  promisino^,  and 

messengers  •'  .  ■'•  '-^    ,^, 

to  King  was  called  Harald,  after  its  mother's  father,  ihe 
king  and  queen  loved  the  infant  exceedingly,  and  re- 
joiced in  the  hope  that  it  would  grow  up  and  inherit 
after  its  father ;  but  it  lived  barely  a  year  after  its 
birth,  which  both  took  much  to  heart.  In  that  winter 
were  many  Icelanders  and  other  clever  men  in  King 
Olaf 's  house,  as  before  related.  His  sister  Ingeborg, 
Tryggve's  daughter,  was  also  at  the  court  at  that 
time.  She  was  beautiful  in  appearance,  modest  and 
frank  with  the  people,  had  a  steady  manly  judgment, 
and  was  beloved  of  all.  She  was  very  fond  of  the 
Icelanders  who  were  there,  but  most  of  Kiartan 
Olafsson,  for  he  had  been  longer  than  the  others 
in  the  king's  house ;  and  he  found  it  always  amusing 
to  converse  with  her,  for  she  had  both  understanding 
and  cleverness  in  talk.  The  king  was  always  gay  and 
full  of  mirth  in  his  intercourse  with  the  people ;  and 
often  asked  about  the  manners  of  the  great  men  and 
chiefs  in  the  neighbouring  countries,  when  strangers 
from  Denmark  or  Sweden  came  to  see  him.  The 
summer  before  Halfred  Vandrseda  skald  had  come 
from  Gotland,  where  he  had  been  with  Earl  Rognvald, 
Ulf 's  son,  who  had  lately  come  to  the  government  of 
Wester  Gotland.  Ulf,  Rognvald's  father,  was  a  bro- 
ther of  Sigrid  the  Haughty;  so  that  King  Olaf  the 
Swede  and  Earl  Rognvald  were  brother  and  sister's 
children.  Halfred  told  Olaf  many  things  about  the 
earl:  he  said  he  was  an  able  chief,  excellently  fitted 
for   governing,    generous   "with   money,    brave,    and 

work,  and  of  the  internal  evidences  of  its  general  tnith_,  which  will  not 
have  escaped  the  reader's  notice.  The  eight  chapters  are  given  in  the 
Appendix. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


467 


steady  in  friendship.     Halfred  said  also  that  the  earl    sagaj^i. 
desired  much  the  friendship  of  King  Olaf,  and  had 
spoken    of    making   court   to    Ingeborg,     Tryggve^s 
dauo-hter.     The  same  winter  came  embassadors  from 
Gotland,  and  fell  in  with  King  Olaf  in  the  north,  in 
Nidaros,  and  brought  the  message  which  Halfred  had 
spoken  of,  — that  the  earl  desired  to  be  King  Olaf 's 
entire  friend,  and  wished  to  become  his  brother-in-law 
by  obtaining  his  sister  Ingeborg  in  marriage.    There- 
with the  embassadors  laid  before  the  king  sufficient 
tokens  in  proof  that  in  reality  they  came  from  the 
earl  on  this  errand.     The  king  listened  with  appro- 
bation to  their  speech  ;  but  said  that  Ingeborg  herself 
must  determine  on  his  assent  to  the  marriage.     The 
king  then  talked  to  his  sister  about  the  matter,  and 
asked  her  opinion   about  it.     She  answered  to  this 
effect,  — ''  I  have  been  with  you  for  some  time,  and 
you  have  shown  brotherly  care  and  tender  respect 
for  me  ever  since  you  came  to  the  country.     I  will 
agree  therefore  to  your  proposal  about  my  marriage, 
provided  that  you  do  not  marry  me  to  a  heathen 
man.^'     The  king  said  it  should  be  as  she  wished. 
The  king  then  spoke  to  the  embassadors ;  and  it  was 
settled   before  they  departed  that  in  summer  Earl 
Rognvald  should  meet  the  king  in  the  east  parts  of 
the  country,  to  enter  into  the  fullest  friendship  with 
each  other,  and  when  they  met  they  would  settle  about 
the  marriage.     With  this  reply  the  earl's  messengers 
went  westward,   and  King  Olaf  remained  all  winter 
in  Nidaros  in  great  splendour,  and  with  many  people 
about  him. 

King  Olaf  proceeded  in   summer   with  his  ships    Chapter 
and  men  southwards  along  the  land,  and  past  Stad.   King  oiaf 
With  him  were  Queen  Thyri  and  Ingeborg,  Tryggve's  ^^^s^"^.  i^^s 
daughter,  the  king's  sister.    Many  of  his  friends  also  to  Vend- 
joined  him,  and  other  persons  of  consequence  who  had   ^"  * 
prepared  themselves  to  travel  with  the  king.     The 

H  H  2 


468 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
CVII. 
King 
Olaf's  ex- 
pedition to 
Vendland. 


first  man  among  these  was  his  brother-in-law,  Erling 
Skialgsson,  who  had  with  him  a  large  ship  of  thirty 
benches  of  rowers,  and  which  was  in  every  respect 
well  equipt.  His  brothers-in-law  Hyrning  and  Thor- 
geir  also  joined  him,  each  of  whom  for  himself  steered 
a  large  vessel ;  and  many  other  powerful  men  besides 
followed  him.  With  all  this  war- force  he  sailed  south- 
wards along  the  land ;  but  when  he  came  south  as  far 
as  Eogaland  he  stopped  there,  for  Erling  Skialgsson 
had  prepared  for  him  a  splendid  feast  at  Sole.  There 
Earl  Rognvald,  Ulf 's  son,  from  Gotland,  came  to  meet 
the  king,  and  to  settle  the  business  which  had  been 
proposed  in  winter  in  the  messages  between  them, 
namely,  the  marriage  with  Ingeborg  the  king's  sister. 
Olaf  received  him  kindly ;  and  when  the  matter  came 
to  be  spoken  of,  the  king  said  he  would  keep  his 
word,  and  marry  his  sister  Ingeborg  to  him,  provided 
he  would  accept  the  true  faith,  and  make  all  his  sub- 
jects he  ruled  over  in  his  land  be  baptized.  The  earl 
agreed  to  this,  and  he  and  all  his  followers  were  bap- 
tized. Now  was  the  feast  enlarged  that  Erling  had 
prepared,  for  the  earl  held  his  wedding  there  with 
Ingeborg  the  king's  sister.  King  Olaf  had  now  mar- 
ried off  all  his  sisters.  The  earl,  with  Ingeborg,  set  out 
on  his  way  home  ;  and  the  king  sent  learned  men  with 
him  to  baptize  the  people  in  Gotland,  and  to  teach 
them  the  right  faith  and  morals.  The  king  and  the 
earl  parted  in  the  greatest  friendship. 

After  his  sister  Ingeborg's  wedding,  the  king  made 
ready  in  all  haste  to  leave  the  country  with  his  army, 
which  was  both  great  and  made  up  of  fine  men. 
When  he  left  the  land  and  sailed  southwards  he  had 
sixty  ships  of  war,  with  which  he  sailed  past  Denmark, 
and  in  through  the  Sound,  and  on  to  Vendland.  He  ap- 
pointed a  meeting  with  King  Burislaf ;  and  when  the 
kings  met,  they  spoke  about  the  f)roperty  which  King 
Olaf  demanded,  and  the  conference  went  off  peaceably, 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  469 

as  a  good  account  was  given  of  the  properties  which    saga  vi. 
King  Olaf  thought  himself  entitled  to  there.     He 
passed  here  much  of  the  summer,  and  found  many  of 
his  old  friends. 

The  Danish  kinsr,   Swend  Forked  Beard,  Avas  mar-    Chapter 


L^,  K^,TV.XXV^         ^     V^XXV^V^       J^V^C^^V^, 


CVIII. 


ried,  as  before  related,  to  Sigrid  the  Haughty.    Sigrid  conspiracy 
was  King  Olaf   Tryggvesson's  greatest  enemy;  the  of*s^e(j"f^ 
cause  of  which,  as  before  said,  was  that  King  Olaf  and  Den- 
had  broken  off  with  her,  and  had  struck  her  in  the  Eari  Erie 
face.     She  uro^ed  Kino;  Swend  much  to  2:ive  battle  to  ^f?^"^*^,  ^ 

o  o  o  King  Olaf.. 

King  Olaf  Tryggvesson;  saying  that  he  had  reason 
enough,  as  Olaf  had  married  his  sister  Thyri  without 
his  leave,  "  and  that  your  predecessors  would  not 
have  submitted  to."  Such  persuasions  Sigrid  had 
often  in  her  mouth ;  and  at  last  she  brought  it  so  far 
that  Swend  resolved  firmly  on  doing  so.  Early  in 
spring  King  Swend  sent  messengers  eastward  into 
Sweden,  to  his  brother-in-law  Olaf,  the  Swedish  king, 
and  to  Earl  Eric;  and  informed  them  that  King  Olaf 
of  Norway  was  levying  men  for  an  expedition,  and 
intended  in  summer  to  go  to  Yendland.  To  this  news 
the  Danish  king  added  an  invitation  to  the  Swedish 
king  and  Earl  Eric  to  meet  King  Swend  with  an 
army,  so  that  all  together  they  might  make  an  attack 
on  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson.  The  Swedish  king  and 
Earl  Eric  were  ready  enough  for  this,  and  imme- 
diately assembled  a  great  fleet  and  an  army  through 
all  Sweden,  with  which  they  sailed  southwards  to 
Denmark,  and  arrived  there  before  King  Olaf  Tryg- 
gvesson had  sailed  to  the  eastward.  Haldor  the  Un- 
christian tells  of  this  in  his  lay  on  Earl  Eric :  — 

''  The  king-subduer  raised  a  host 
Of  warriors  on  the  Swedish  coast. 
The  brave  went  southwards  to  the  fight, 
Who  love  the  sword-storm's  gleaming  light; 
The  brave,  who  fill  the  wild  wolf's  mouth. 
Followed  bold  Eric  to  the  south; 
The  brave,  who  sport  in  blood  —  each  one 
With  the  bold  earl  to  sea  is  gone." 

H  H    3 


470 


CHRONICLE   OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
CIX. 

Earl  Sig- 
vald's 
treach- 
erous 
plans. 


Chavter 

ex. 

King 
Olaf's 


The  Swedish  king  and  Earl  Eric  sailed  to  meet  the 
Danish  king,  and  they  had  all  when  together  an  im- 
mense force. 

At  the  same  time  tliat  King  Swend  sent  a  message 
to  Sweden  for  an  army,  he  sent  Earl  Sigvald  to  Vend- 
land  to  spy  out  King  Olaf  Tryggvesson's  proceedings, 
and  to  bring  it  about  by  cunning  devices  that  King 
Swend  and  King  Olaf  should  fall  in  with  each  other. 
So  Sigvald  sets  out  to  go  to  Vendland.  First,  he 
came  to  Jomsburg,  and  then  he  sought  out  King  Olaf 
Tryggvesson.  There  was  much  friendship  in  their 
conversation,  and  the  earl  got  himself  into  great 
favour  with  the  king.  Astrid,  the  earl's  wife,  King 
Burislaf 's  daughter,  was  a  great  friend  of  King  Olaf 
Tryggvesson,  particularly  on  account  of  the  connec- 
tion which  had  been  between  them  when  Olaf  was 
married  to  her  sister  Geira.  Earl  Sigvald  was  a  pru- 
dent, ready-minded  man ;  and  as  he  had  got  a  voice  in 
King  Olaf's  council,  he  put  him  off  much  from  sail- 
ing homewards,  finding  various  reasons  for  delay. 
Olaf's  people  were  in  the  highest  degree  dissatisfied 
with  this ;  for  the  men  were  anxious  to  get  home,  and 
they  lay  ready  to  sail,  waiting  only  for  a  wind.  At 
last  Earl  Sigvald  got  a  secret  message  from  Denmark 
that  the  Swedish  king's  army  was  arrived  from  the 
east,  and  that  Earl  Eric's  also  was  ready ;  and  that  all 
these  chiefs  had  resolved  to  sail  eastAvards  to  Vend- 
land, and  wait  for  King  Olaf  at  an  island  which  is 
called  Svald.*  They  also  desired  the  earl  to  con- 
trive matters  so  that  they  should  meet  King  Olaf 
there. 

There  came  first  a  flying  report  to  Vendland  that 
the  Danish  king,  Swend,  had  fitted  out  an  army ;  and 

*  This  island  has  been  somewhere  between  the  south-east  end  of  the 
Isle  of  Rugen  and  the  continent;  but  no  such  isle  now  exists,  and  the 
antiquary  is  forced  to  conjecture  it  may  have  been  lost  in  the  14th 
century,  when  many  changes  took  place  in  the  coast  land  of  the  Baltic. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  471 

it  was  soon  whispered  that  he  intended  to  attack  saoavl 
Eng  Olaf.  But  Earl  Sigvald  says  to  King  Olaf,  ''  It  voyage 
never  can  be  King  Swend's  intention  to  venture  with  lanJ 
the  Danish  force  alone,  to  give  battle  to  thee  with 
such  a  powerful  army ;  but  if  thou  hast  any  suspicion 
that  evil  is  on  foot,  I  Avill  follow  thee  with  my  force 
(at  that  time  it  was  considered  a  great  matter  to  have 
Jomsburg  vikings  with  an  army),  and  I  will  give 
thee  eleven  manned  ships."  The  king  accepted  this 
offer ;  and  as  the  light  breeze  of  wind  that  came  was 
favourable,  he  ordered  the  ships  to  get  under  weigh, 
and  the  war-horns  to  sound  the  departure.  The  sails 
were  hoisted ;  and  all  the  small  vessels,  sailing  fastest, 
got  out  to  sea  before  the  others.  The  earl,  who 
sailed  nearest  to  the  king's  ship,  called  to  those  on 
board  to  tell  the  king  to  sail  in  his  keel-track :  "  For 
I  know  where  the  water  is  deepest  between  the  islands 
and  in  the  sounds,  and  these  large  ships  require  the 
deepest."  Then  the  earl  sailed  first  with  his  eleven 
ships,  and  the  king  followed  with  his  large  ships,  also 
eleven  in  number ;  but  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the 
fleet  sailed  out  to  sea.  Now  when  Earl  Sigvald  came 
saihng  close  under  the  island  Svald,  a  skiff  rowed  out 
to  inform  the  earl  that  the  Danish  king's  army  was 
lying  in  the  harbour  before  them.  Then  the  earl 
ordered  the  sails  of  his  vessels  to  be  struck,  and  they 
rowed  in  under  the  island.  Haldor  the  Unchristian 
says :  — 

"  From  out  the  south  bold  Tryggve's  son 
With  one-and-seventy  ships  came  on^ 
To  dye  his  sword  in  bloody  fight_, 
Against  the  Danish  foeman's  might. 
But  the  false  earl  the  king  betrayed; 
And  treacherous  Sigvald,  it  is  said, 
Deserted  from  King  Olaf 's  fleet. 
And  basely  fled,  the  Danes  to  meet." 

It  is  said  here  that  King  Olaf  and  Earl  Sigvald  had 
seventy  sail  of  vessels  and  one  more,  when  they  sailed 
from  the  south. 

H  H  4 


472  CHRONICLE   OF   THE 

SAGA  VI.        The  Danisli  king  Swend,  the  Swedish  king  Olaf, 
Chapter    and  Earl  Eric,  were  there  with  all  their  forces.     The 
The  ^L      weather  being  fine  and  clear  sunshine,  all  these  chiefs, 
suitation  of  with  a  great  suite,  went  out  on  the  isle  to  see  the 
vessels  sailing  out  at  sea,  and  many  of  them  crowded 
together ;  and  they  saw  among  them  one  large  and 
glancing  ship.     The  two  kings  said,  "  That  is  a  large 
and  very  beautiful  vessel :  that  will  be  the  Long  Ser- 
pent." 

Earl  Eric  replied,  "  That  is  not  the  Long  Serpent." 
And  he  was  right ;  for  it  was  a  ship  belonging  to 
Endric  of  Grimsar. 

Soon  after  they  saw  another  vessel  coming  sailing 
along  much  larger  than  the  first ;  then  says  King 
Swend,  "Olaf  Tryggvesson  must  be  afraid,  for  he 
does  not  venture  to  sail  with  the  figure-head  of  the 
dragon  upon  his  ship." 

Says  Earl  Eric,  "  That  is  not  the  king's  ship  yet ; 
for  I  know  that  ship  by  the  coloured  stripes  of  cloth 
in  her  sail.  That  is  Erling  Skialgsson.  Let  him 
sail ;  for  it  is  the  better  for  us  that  this  ship  is  away 
from  Olaf 's  fleet,  so  well  equipt  as  she  is." 

Soon  after  they  saw  and  knew  Earl  Sigvald's  ships, 
which  turned  in  and  laid  themselves  under  the 
island.  Then  they  saw  three  ships  coming  along 
under  sail,  and  one  of  them  very  large.  King  Swend 
ordered  his  men  to  go  to  their  ships,  "  for  there 
comes  the  Long  Serpent." 

Earl  Eric  says,  "  Many  other  great  and  stately 
vessels  have  they  besides  the  Long  Serpent.  Let  us 
wait  a  little." 

I  Then  said  many,  "Earl  Eric  will  not  fight  and 
avenge  his  father ;  and  it  is  a  great  shame  that  it 
should  be  told  that  we  lay  here  with  so  great  a  force, 
and  allowed  King  Olaf  to  sail  out  to  sea  before  our 
eyes." 

But  when  they  had  spoken  thus  for  a  short  time, 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  473 

tliey  saw  four  ships  coming  sailing  along,  of  which    saga  vi. 
one  had  a  large  dragon-head  richly  gilt.     Then  King 
Swend  stood  up,  and  said,  "  That  dragon  shall  carry 
me  this  evening  high,  for  I  shall  steer  it." 

Then  said  many,  "  The  Serpent  is  indeed  a  wonder- 
fully large  and  beautiful  vessel,  and  it  shows  a  great 
mind  to  have  built  such  a  ship." 

Earl  Eric  said  so  loud  that  several  persons  heard 
him,  "  If  King  Olaf  had  no  other  vessels  but  only 
that  one.  King  Swend  would  never  take  it  from  him 
with  the  Danish  force  alone." 

Thereafter  all  the  people  rushed  on  board  their 
ships,  took  down  the  tents*,  and  in  all  haste  made 
ready  for  battle. 

While  the  chiefs  were  speaking  among  themselves 
as  above  related,  they  saw  three  very  large  ships 
coming  sailing  along,  and  at  last  after  them  a  fourth, 
and  that  was  the  Long  Serpent.  Of  the  large  ships 
which  had  gone  before,  and  which  they  had  taken 
for  the  Long  Serpent,  the  first  was  the  Crane ;  the 
one  after  that  was  the  Short  Serpent ;  and  when  they 
really  saw  the  Long  Serpent  all  knew,  and  nobody 
had  a  word  to  say  against  it,  that  it  must  be  Olaf 
Tryggvesson  who  was  sailing  in  such  a  vessel ;  and 
they  went  to  their  ships  to  arm  for  the  fight. 

An  agreement  had  been  concluded  among  the  chiefs. 
King  Swend,  King  Olaf  the  S^vede,  and  Earl  Eric,  that 
they  should  divide  Norway  among  them  in  three  parts, 
in  case  they  succeeded  against  Olaf  Tryggvesson ; 
but  that  he  of  the  chiefs  who  should  first  board  the 
Serpent  should  have  her,  and  all  the  booty  found  in 
her,  and  each  should  have  the  ships  he  cleared  for 
himself.  Earl  Eric  had  a  large  ship  of  war  which  he 
used  upon  his  viking  expeditions ;  and  there  was  an 

*  The  ship-tents  or  tilts^,  under  which  the  crews  appear  to  have  lived 
when  not  under  sail. 


474 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGA  VI. 


Chapter 
CXII. 
Of  King 
Olaf's 
people. 


Chapter 
CXIII. 
King 
Olaf's 
ships  are 
closed  up 
for  battle. 


iron  beard  or  comb  above  on  both  sides  of  the  stem, 
and  below  it  a  thick  iron  plate  as  broad  as  the  combs, 
which  went  down  quite  to  the  gunnel.* 

When  Earl  Sigvald  with  his  vessels  rowed  in  under 

the  island,  Thorkel  Dyrdil  of  the  Crane,  and  the  other 

ship  commanders  who  sailed  with  him,  saw  that  he 

turned  his  ships  towards  the  isle,  and  thereupon  let  fall 

the  sails,  and  rowed  after  him,  calling  out,  and  asking 

why  he  sailed  that  way.  The  earl  answered,  that  he  was 

waiting  for  King  Olaf,  as  he  feared  there  were  enemies 

in  the  way.     They  lay  upon  their  oars  until  Thorkel 

Nefia  came  up  with  the  Short  Serpent  and  the  three 

ships  which  followed  him.     When  they  told  them  the 

same  they  too  struck  sail,  and  let  the  ships  drive, 

waiting  for  King  Olaf.     But  when  the  king  sailed  in 

towards  the  isle,  the  whole  enemies'  fleet  came  rowing 

within  them  out  to  the  Sound.     When  they  saw  this 

they  begged  the  king  to  hold  on  his  way,  and  not 

risk  battle  with  so  great  a  force.     The  king  replied, 

high   on  the  quarterdeck  where  he   stood,   "  Strike 

the  sails  ;  never  shall  men  of  mine  think  of  flight.     I 

never  fled  from  battle.     Let  God  dispose  of  my  life, 

but  flight  I  shall  never  take."     It  was  done  as  the 

king  commanded.     Halfred  tells  of  it  thus :  — 

^'  And  far  and  wide  the  saying  bold 
Of  the  brave  warrior  shall  be  told. 
The  king,  in  many  a  fray  well  tried,, 
To  his  brave  champions  round  him  cried^ 
'  My  men  shall  never  learn  from  me 
From  the  dark  weapon-cloud  to  flee.' 
Nor  were  the  brave  words  spoken  then 
Forgotten  by  his  faithful  men." 

Kino^  Olaf  ordered  the  war-horns  to  sound  for  all 
his  ships  to  close  up  to  each  other.  The  king's  ship 
lay  in  the  middle  of  the  line,  and  on  one  side  lay  the 
Little  Serpent,  and  on  the  other  the  Crane;  and  as 

*  It  seems  to  have  been  an  iron  plate  with  spikes  on  the  top,  all 
round  the  stem  and  sides  of  the  ship^  to  prevent  boarding. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY. 


475 


they  made  fast  the  stems  together*,  the  Long  Serpent's  saga  vi. 
stem  and  the  short  Serpent's  were  made  fast  together ; 
but  when  the  king  saw  it  he  called  out  to  his  men, 
and  ordered  them  to  lay  the  larger  ship  more  in  ad- 
vance, so  that  its  stern  should  not  lie  so  far  behind  in 
the  fleet. 

Then  says  Ulf  the  Red,  "  If  the  Long  Serpent  is  to 
lie  as  much  more  ahead  of  the  other  ships  as  she  is 
longer  than  them,  we  shall  have  hard  work  of  it  here 
on  the  forecastle." 

The  king  replies,  "  I  did  not  think  I  had  a  fore- 
castle man  afraid  as  well  as  red."f 

Says  Ulf,  "  Defend  thou  the  quarterdeck  as  I  shall 
the  forecastle." 

The  king  had  a  bow  in  his  hands,  and  laid  an  arrow 
on  the  string,  and  aimed  at  Ulf. 

Ulf  said,  "  Shoot  another  way,  king,  where  it  is 
more  needful :  my  work  is  thy  gain." 

King  Olaf  stood  on  the  Serpent's  quarterdeck,  high    Chapter 
over  the  others.     He  had  a  gilt  shield,  and  a  helmet  of  Kin^' 
inlaid  with  gold ;  over  his  armour  he  had  a  short  red  ^^^f-  . 
coat,  and  was   easy  to  be  distinguished  from  other 
men.     When  King  Olaf  saw  that  the  scattered  forces 
of  the  enemy  gathered  themselves  together  under  the 
banners  of  their  ships,  he  asked,  "  Who  is  the  chief 
of  the  force  right  opposite  to  us  ?" 

He  was  answered,  that  it  was  King  Swend  with 
the  Danish  army. 

The  king  replies,  '^  We  are  not  afraid  of  these  soft 

*  The  mode  of  fighting  in  sea  battles  appears,  from  this  and  many 
other  descriptions,  to  have  been  for  each  party  to  bind  together  the 
stems  and  sterns  of  their  own  ships,  forming  them  thus  into  a  compact 
body  as  soon  as  the  fleets  came  within  fighting  distance,  or  within  spears* 
throw.  They  appear  to  have  fought  principally  from  the  forecastles; 
and  to  have  used  grappling-irons  for  dragging  a  vessel  out  of  the  line, 
or  within  boarding  distance. 

"I*  There  is  a  rhyme  or  pun  here  —  Raudan  oc  Ragan.  Afraid  — 
llagan,  is  similar  in  alliterative  rhyme  to  Raudan  —  Red,  the  name  of 
Ulf;  and  Raudan  oc  Ragan  make  a  line  of  alliterative  verse. 


476  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

SAGA  VI.    Danes,  for  tliere  is  no  bravery  in  them ;  but  who  are 
the  troops  on  the  right  of  the  Danes  ?" 

He  was  answered,  that  it  was  King  Olaf  with  the 
Swedish  forces. 

"  Better  it  were,"  says  King  Olaf,  ''  for  these  Swedes 
to  be  sitting  at  home  kiUing  their  sacrifices,  than  to 
be  venturing  under  our  weapons  from  the  Long  Ser- 
pent. But  who  owns  the  large  ships  on  the  larboard 
side  of  the  Danes?" 

"  That  is  Earl  Eric  Hakonson,"  say  they. 

The  king  replies,  "  He,  methinks,  has  good  reason 

for  meeting  us ;    and  we  may  expect  the   sharpest 

conflict  with  these  men,  for  they  are  Norsemen  like 

ourselves." 

Chapter        The  Mugs  uow  laid  out  their  oars,  and  prepared  to 

Tiie  battle    attack.     King  Swend  laid  his  ship  against  the  Long 

begins.        Serpent.     Outside  of  him  Olaf  the  Swede  laid  himself, 

and  set  his  ship's  stem  against  the  outermost  ship  of 

King  Olaf 's  line ;  and  on  the  other  side  lay  Earl  Eric. 

Then  a  hard  combat  began.     Earl  Sigvald  held  back 

with  the  oars  on  his  ships,  and  did  not  join  the  fray. 

So  says  Skule  Thorsteinson,  who  at  that  time  was 

with  Earl  Eric :  — 

"  I  followed  Sigvald  in  my  youth, 
And  gallant  Eric;  and  in  truth, 
Tho'  now  I  am  grown  stiff  and  old. 
In  the  spear-song  I  once  was  bold. 
Where  arrows  whistled  on  the  shore 
Of  Swalder  fiord  my  shield  I  bore. 
And  stood  amidst  the  loudest  clash 
When  swords  on  shields  made  fearful  crash." 

And  Halfred  also  sings  thus :  — 

^^  In  truth,  I  think  the  gallant  king. 
Midst  such  a  foemen's  gathering, 
Would  be  the  better  of  some  score 
Of  his  tight  Drontheim  lads,  or  more; 
For  many  a  chief  has  run  away, 
And  left  our  brave  king  in  the  fray. 


KINGS    OF    NORWAY. 


477 


Two  great  kings'  power  to  withstand,  saga  VI. 

And  one  great  earl's,  with  his  small  band. 
The  king  who  dares  such  mighty  deed 
A  hero  for  his  scald  would  need." 

This  battle  was  one  of  the  severest  told  of,  and  many  Chapter 
were  the  people  slain.  The  forecastle  men  of  the  Long  pught  of 
Serpent,  the  Little  Serpent,  and  the  Crane,  threw  grap-  ^^^s^ 
plings  and  stem  chains  into  King  Swend's  ship,  and  and  King 
used  their  weapons  well  against  the  people  standing  s.^^'ede.^ 
below  them,  for  they  cleared  the  decks  of  all  the  ships 
they  could  lay  fast  hold  of;  and  King  Swend,  and  all  the 
men  who  escaped,  fled  to  other  vessels,  and  laid  them- 
selves out  of  bow-shot.  It  went  with  this  force  just  as 
King  Olaf  Tryggvesson  had  foreseen.  Then  KingOlaf 
the  Swede  laid  himself  in  their  place ;  but  when  he 
came  near  the  great  ships  it  went  with  him  as  with 
them,  for  he  lost  many  men  and  some  ships,  and  was 
obliged  to  get  away.  But  Earl  Eric  laid  the  Iron  Beard 
side  by  side  with  the  outermost  of  King  Olaf's  ships, 
thinned  it  of  men,  cut  the  cables,  and  let  it  drive.  Then 
he  laid  alongside  of  the  next,  and  fought  until  he  had 
cleared  it  of  men  also.  Now  all  the  people  who  were 
in  the  smaller  ships  began  to  run  into  the  larger,  and 
the  earl  cut  them  loose  as  fast  as  he  cleared  them  of 
men.  The  Danes  and  Swedes  laid  themselves  now 
out  of  shooting  distance  all  around  Olaf's  ship ;  but 
Earl  Eric  lay  always  close  alongside  of  the  ships,  and 
used  his  swords  and  battle-axes,  and  as  fast  as  people 
fell  in  his  vessel  others,  Danes  and  Swedes,  came  in 
their  place.     So  says  Haldor :  — 

"  Sharp  was  the  clang  of  shield  and  sword. 
And  shrill  the  song  of  spears  on  board. 
And  whistling  arrows  thickly  flew 
Against  the  Serpent's  gallant  crew. 
And  still  fresh  foemen,  it  is  said. 
Earl  Eric  to  her  long  side  led  ; 
Whole  armies  of  his  Danes  and  Swedes, 
Wielding  on  high  their  blue  sword-blades." 

Then    the   fight  became   most   severe,   and  many 


478 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


SAGAvi.  people  fell.  But  at  last  it  came  to  this,  that  all  King 
Olaf  Tryggvesson's  ships  were  cleared  of  men  except 
the  Long  Serpent,  on  board  of  which  all  who  could 
still  carry  their  arms  were  gathered.  Then  Iron 
Beard  lay  side  by  side  with  the  Serpent,  and  the 
fight  went  on  with  battle-axe  and  sword.  So  says 
Haldor :  — 

'^'  Hard  pressed  on  ever  side  by  foes. 
The  Serpent  reels  beneath  the  blows; 
Crash  go  the  shields  around  the  bow  ! 
Breat-plates  and  breasts  pierced  thro'  and  thro' ! 
In  the  sword-storm  the  Holm  beside, 
The  Iron  Beard  lay  alongside 
The  king's  Long  Serpent  of  the  sea  — 
Fate  gave  the  earl  the  victory." 


Chatter 
CXVIL 

Of  Earl 

Eric. 


Earl  Eric  was  in  the  forehold  of  his  ship,  where  a 
cover  of  shields*  had  been  set  up.  In  the  fight,  both 
hewing  weapons,  sword,  and  axe,  and  the  thrust  of 
spears  had  been  used  ;  and  all  that  could  be  used  as 
weapon  for  casting  was  cast.  Some  used  bows,  some 
threw  spears  with  the  hand.  So  many  weapons  were 
cast  into  the  Serpent,  and  so  thick  flew  spears  and 
arrows,  that  the  shields  could  scarcely  receive  them  ; 
for  on  all  sides  the  Serpent  was  surrounded  by  war 
ships.  Then  King  Olaf 's  men  became  so  mad  with  rage, 
that  they  ran  on  board  of  the  enemies'  ships,  to  get  at 
the  people  with  stroke  of  sword  and  kill  them ;  but 
many  did  not  lay  themselves  so  near  the  Serpent,  in 
order  to  escape  the  close  encounter  with  battle-axe 
or  sword ;  and  thus  the  most  of  Olaf 's  men  went  over- 
board and  sank  under  their  weapons,  thinking  they 
were  fighting  on  plain  ground.  So  says  Halfred:  — 


*  Both  in  land  and  sea  fights  the  commanders  appear  to  have  been 
protected  from  missile  weapons,  —  stones,  arrows,  spears, —  by  a  shield- 
biirg ;  that  is,  by  a  party  of  men  bearing  shields  surrounding  them  in 
such  a  way  that  the  shields  were  a  parapet,  covering  those  within  the 
circle.  The  Romans  had  a  similar  military  arrangement  of  shields  in 
sieges  —  the  testudo. 


KINGS   OF   NORWAY.  479 

The  daring  lads  shrink  not  from  death,  —  saga  Vr. 

O'erboard  they  leap,  and  sink  beneath 

The  Serpent's  keel :    all  armed  they  leap, 

And  down  they  sink  five  fathoms  deep. 

The  foe  was  daunted  at  their  cheers  : 

The  king,  who  still  the  Serpent  steers. 

In  such  a  strait  —  beset  with  foes  — 

Wanted  but  some  more  lads  like  those." 

Einar  Tambarskelver,  one  of  the  sharpest  of  bow-     Chapter 

r  .  CXVIII 

shooters,  stood  by  the  mast,  and  shot  with  his  bow.   of  Einar 
Einar  shot  an  arrow  at  Earl  Eric,  which  hit  the  tiller-  Tambar- 

'  .  skelver. 

end  jnst  above  the  earl's  head  so  hard  that  it  entered 
the  wood  up  to  the  arrow-shaft.  The  earl  looked 
that  way,  and  asked  if  they  knew  who  had  shot ;  and 
at  the  same  moment  another  arrow  flew  between  his 
hand  and  his  side,  and  into  the  stuffing  of  the  chief's 
stool,  so  that  the  barb  stood  far  out  on  the  other  side. 
Then  said  the  earl  to  a  man  called  Fin, — but  some 
say  he  was  of  Finn  (Laplander)  race,  and  was  a  supe- 
rior archer,  — "  Shoot  that  tall  man  by  the  mast."  Fin 
shot;  and  the  arrow  hit  the  middle  of  Einar' s  bow 
just  at  the  moment  that  Einar  was  drawing  it,  and 
the  bow  was  split  in  two  parts. 

"  What  is  that,"  cried  King  Olaf,  "  that  broke  vnth 
such  a  noise  ?" 

''  Norway,  king,  from  thy  hands,"  cried  Einar. 

''  No !  not  quite  so  much  as  that,"  says  the  king ; 
*'  take  my  bow,  and  shoot,"  flinging  the  bow  to  him. 

Einar  took  the  bow,  and  drew  it  over  the  head  of 
the  arrow.  ''  Too  weak,  too  weak,"  said  he,  "  for 
the  bow  of  a  mighty  king ! "  and,  throwing  the  bow 
aside,  he  took  sword  and  shield,  and  fought  valiantly. 

The  king  stood  on  the  gangways  of  the  Long  Ser-    Chapter 
pent,  and  shot  the  greater  part  of  the  day;  sometimes  okr^"^ 
with  the  bow,  sometimes  with  the  spear,  and  always  ^»«  "len 
throwing  two  spears  at  once.   He  looked  down  over  the  sw3s 
ship's  side,  and  saw  that  his  men  struck  briskly  with 
their  swords,  and  yet  wounded  but  seldom.     Then  he 


ffives 


480 


CHRONICLE    OF   THE 


CHAPTEa 

cxx. 

The 

Serpent 

boarded. 


SAGA  VI.  called  aloud,  "  Why  do  ye  strike  so  gently  that  ye 
seldom  cut?"  One  among  the  people  answered,  "The 
swords  are  blunt  and  full  of  notches."  Then  the 
king  went  down  into  the  forehold,  opened  the  chest 
under  the  throne,  and  took  out  many  sharp  swords, 
which  he  handed  to  his  men ;  but  as  he  stretched 
down  his  right  hand  with  them,  some  observed  that 
blood  was  running  down  under  his  steel  glove,  but  no 
one  knew  where  he  was  wounded. 

Desperate  was  the  defence  in  the  Serpent,  and  there 
was  the  heaviest  destruction  of  men  done  by  the 
forecastle  crew,  and  those  of  the  forehold,  for  in  both 
places  the  men  were  chosen  men,  and  the  ship  was 
highest ;  but  in  the  middle  of  the  ship  the  people 
were  thinned.  Now  when  Earl  Eric  saw  there  were 
but  few  people  remaining  beside  the  ship's  mast,  he 
determined  to  board ;  and  he  entered  the  Serpent  with 
four  others.  Then  came  Hyrning,  the  king's  brother- 
in-law,  and  some  others  against  him,  and  there  was 
the  most  severe  combat ;  and  at  last  the  earl  was 
forced  to  leap  back  on  board  the  Iron  Beard  again, 
and  some  who  had  accompanied  him  were  killed,  and 
others  wounded.    Thord  Kolbeinsson  alludes  to  this :  — 

''  On  Odin's  deck,  all  wet  with  blood. 
The  helm-adorned  hero  stood  ; 
And  gallant  Hyrning  honour  gained. 
Clearing  all  round  with  sword  deep  stained. 
The  high  Fielde  peaks  shall  fall. 
Ere  men  forget  this  to  recall." 

Now  the  fight  became  hot  indeed,  and  many  men 
fell  on  board  the  Serpent ;  and  the  men  on  board  of 
her  began  to  be  thinned  oJfF,  and  the  defence  to  be 
weaker.  The  earl  resolved  to  board  the  Serpent 
again,  and  again  he  met  mth  a  warm  reception.  When 
the  forecastle  men  of  the  Serpent  saw  what  he  Avas 
doing,  they  went  aft  and  made  a  desperate  fight ;  but 
so  many  men  of   the  Serpent   had  fallen,  that  the 


KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  481 

ship's  sides  were  in  many  places  quite  bare  of  de-  sagaji. 
fenders ;  and  the  earl's  men  poured  in  all  around  into 
the  vessel,  and  all  the  men  who  were  still  able  to  de- 
fend the  ship  crowded  aft  to  the  king,  and  arrayed 
themselves  for  his  defence.  So  says  Haldor  the  Un- 
christian :  — 

"  Eric  cheers  on  his  men,  — 
'  On  to  the  charge  again ! ' 
The  gallant  few 
Of  Olaf 's  crew 
Must  refuge  take 
On  the  quarter-deck. 
Around  the  king 
They  stand  in  ring; 
Their  shields  enclose 
The  king  from  foes, 
And  the  few  who  still  remain 
Fight  madly,  but  in  vain. 
Eric  cheers  on  his  men  — 
^  On  to  the  charge  again ! '  " 

Kolbiorn  the  marshal,  who  had  on  clothes  and  arms    Chapter 

CXXI 

like  the  king's,  and  was  a  remarkably  stout  and  hand-  The  Ser- 
some  man,  went  up  to  the  king  on  the  quarter-deck,  l^^^^l^^''^'' 
The  battle  was  still  going  on  fiercely  even  in  the  fore- 
hold.*  But  as  many  of  the  earl's  men  had  now  got 
into  the  Serpent  as  could  find  room,  and  his  ships  lay 
all  round  her,  and  few  were  the  people  left  in  the  Ser- 
pent for  defence  against  so  great  a  force;  and  in  a 
short  time  most  of  the  Serpent's  men  fell,  brave  and 
stout  though  they  were.  King  Olaf  and  Kolbiorn  the 
marshal  both  sprang  overboard,  each  on  his  own  side 
of  the  ship  ;  but  the  earl's  men  had  laid  out  boats 
g,round  the  Serpent,  and  killed  those  who  leaped  over- 
board. Now  when  the  king  had  sprung  overboard, 
they  tried  to  seize  him  with  their  hands,  and  bring 

*  From  the  occasional  descriptions  of  vessels  in  this  and  other  battles, 
it  may  be  inferred  that  even  the  Long  Serpent,  described  in  the  95th 
Chapter  as  of  150  feet  of  keel,  was  only  decked  fore  and  aft;  the  34 
benches  for  rowers  occupying  the  open  area  in  the  middle,  and  probably 
gangways  running  along  the  sides  for  communicating  from  the  quarter- 
deck to  the  forecastle. 

VOL.  I.  II 


482  CHRONICLE    OF    THE 

sAGAjri.  i^yj^  ^Q  ^slyI  Eric ;  but  King  Olaf  threw  his  shield  over 
his  head,  and  sank  beneath  the  waters.  Kolbiorn 
held  his  shield  behind  him  to  protect  himself  from 
the  spears  cast  at  him  from  the  ships  which  lay  round 
the  Serpent,  and  he  fell  so  upon  his  shield  that  it 
came  under  him,  so  that  he  could  not  sink  so  quickly. 
He  was  thus  taken  and  brought  into  a  boat,  and  they 
supposed  he  was  the  king.  He  was  brought  before 
the  earl ;  and  when  the  earl  saw  it  was  Kolbiorn,  and 
not  the  king,  he  gave  him  his  life.  At  the  same  mo- 
ment all  of  King  Olaf 's  men  who  were  in  life  sprang 
overboard  from  the  Serpent ;  and  Thorkel  Nefia,  the 
king's  brother,  was  the  last  of  all  the  men  who  sprang 
overboard.  It  is  thus  told  concerning  the  king  by 
Halfred :  — 

'^  The  Serpent  and  the  Crane 
Lay  wrecks  upon  the  main. 
On  his  sword  he  cast  a  glance,  — 
With  it  he  saw  no  chance. 
To  his  marshal,  who  of  yore 
Many  a  war-chance  had  come  o'er, 
He  spoke  a  word  —  then  drew  in  breath. 
And  sprang  to  his  deep-sea  death." 

Chapter        Earl  Si2:vald,  as  before  related,  came  from  Yend- 

CXXII  ... 

Of  the  re-    laiid,  iu  compauy  with  King  Olaf,  with  ten  ships; 
port  among  |^^-^^  ^|^^  elcvcnth  sliip  was  manned  with  the  men  of 

the  people  -L 

of  the  Astrid,  the  king's  daughter,  the  wife  of  Earl  Sigvald. 
Now  when  King  Olaf  sprang  overboard,  the  whole 
army  raised  a  shout  of  victory ;  and  then  Earl  Sigvald 
and  his  men  put  their  oars  in  the  water  and  rowed 
towards  the  battle.  Haldor  the  Unchristian  tells  of 
it  thus :  — 

*'  Then  first  the  Vendland  vessels  came 
Into  the  fight  with  little  fame; 
The  fight  still  lingered  on  the  wave, 
Tho'  hope  was  gone  with  Olaf  brave. 
War,  like  a  full-fed  ravenous  beast. 
Still  oped  her  grim  jaws  for  the  feast. 
The  few  who  stood  now  quickly  fled. 
When  the  shout  told  — '  Olaf  is  dead  !  '  " 


island. 


^  KINGS    OF   NORWAY.  483 

But  the  Vendland  cutter,  in  which  Astrid's  men  saga  vi. 
were,  rowed  back  to  Vendland  ;  and  the  report  went 
immediately  abroad,  and  was  told  by  many,  that  King 
Olaf  had  cast  off  his  coat  of  mail  under  water,  and 
had  swam,  diving  under  the  long-ships,  until  he  came 
to  the  Vendland  cutter,  and  that  Astrid's  men  had 
conveyed  him  to  Vendland:  and  many  tales  have 
been  made  since  about  the  adventures  of  Olaf  the 
king.     Halfred  speaks  thus  about  it :  — 

''  Does  Olaf  live  ?  or  is  he  dead  ? 
Has  he  the  hungry  ravens  fed  ? 
I  scarcely  know  what  I  should  say, 
For  many  tell  the  tale  each  way. 
This  I  can  say,  nor  fear  to  lie. 
That  he  was  wounded  grievously, — 
So  wounded  in  this  bloody  strife, 
He  scarce  could  come  away  with  life." 

But  however  this  may  have  been.  King  Olaf 
Tryggvesson  never  came  back  again  to  his  kingdom 
of  Norway.  Halfred  Vandrasdaskald  speaks  also  thus 
about  it:  — 

^^  The  witness  who  reports  this  thing 
Of  Tryggvesson,  our  gallant  king. 
Once  served  the  king,  and  truth  should  tell, 
For  Olaf  hated  lies  like  hell. 
If  Olaf  'scaped  from  this  sword-thing. 
Worse  fate,  I  fear,  befell  our  king 
Than  people  guess,  or  e'er  can  know. 
For  he  was  hemm'd  in  by  the  foe. 
From  the  far  east  some  news  is  rife 
Of  king  sore  wounded  saving  life ; 
His  death,  too  sure,  leaves  me  no  care 
For  cobweb  rumours  in  the  air. 
It  never  was  the  will  of  fate 
That  Olaf  from  such  perilous  strait 
Should  'scape  with  life:  this  truth  may  grieve — 
'  What  people  wish  they  soon  believe.'  " 

By  this  victory  Earl  Eric  Hakonson  became  owner  J&ITTy^ 
of  the  Long  Serpent,  and  made  a  great  booty  besides ;  of  Eari 
and  he  steered  the  Serpent  from  the  battle.     So  says  ^""of '^ 
Haldor :  —  Hakon. 

''  Olaf,  with  glittering  helmet  crowned. 

Had  steered  the  Serpent  through  the  Sound ; 

I  I  2 


484  CHRONICLE    OF    THE  ^ 

SAGA  VL  And  people  dressed  their  boats^  and  cheered. 

As  Olaf  s  fleet  in  splendour  steered. 
But  the  descendant  of  great  Hemming, 
Whose  race  tells  many  a  gallant  sea-king. 
His  blue  sword  in  red  life-blood  stained, 
And  bravely  Olaf 's  long-ship  gained." 

Swend,  a  son  of  Earl  Hakon,  and  Earl  Eric's  bro- 
ther, was  engaged  at  this  time  to  marry  Holmfrid,  a 
daughter  of  King  Olaf  the  Swedish  king.  Now  when 
Swend  the  Danish  king,  Olaf  the  Swedish  king,  and 
Earl  Eric  divided  the  kingdom  of  Norway  between 
them,  King  Olaf  got  four  districts  in  the  Drontheim 
country,  and  also  the  districts  of  More  and  Raumsdal ; 
and  in  the  east  part  of  the  land  he  got  Ranrige,  from 
the  Gotha  river  to  Swinesund.  Olaf  gave  these  do- 
minions into  Earl  Swend's  hands,  on  the  same  condi- 
tions as  the  sub-kings  or  earls  had  held  them  formerly 
from  the  upper-king  of  the  country.  Earl  Eric  got 
four  districts  in  the  Drontheim  country,  and  Haloga- 
land,  Naumadal,  the  Fiord  districts,  Sogn,  Horda- 
land,  Rogaland,  and  North  Agder,  all  the  way  to  the 
Naze.      So  says  Thord  Kolbeinsson  :  — 

"  All  chiefs  within  our  land 
On  Eric's  side  now  stand : 
Erling  alone,  I  know, 
Remains  Earl  Eric's  foe. 
All  praise  our  generous  earl, — 
*  He  gives,  and  is  no  churl : 

All  men  are  well  content 
Fate  such  a  chief  has  sent. 
From  Veg  to  Agder  they. 
Well  pleased,  the  earl  obey ; 

And  all  will  by  him  stand,  ^ 

To  guard  the  Norsemen's  land.  ^ 

And  now  the  news  is  spread  ^ 

That  mighty  Swend  is  dead,  » 

And  luck  is  gone  from  those  ^ 

Who  were  the  Norsemen's  foes." 

The  Danish  king  Swend  retained  Viken  as  he  had 
held  it  before,  but  he  gave  Raumarike  and  Hederaark 
to  Earl  Eric.     Swend  Hakonson  got  the  title  of  earl 


KINGS   OF  NORWAY.  485 

from  Olaf  the  Swedish  king.  Swend  was  one  of  the  saga  vi. 
handsomest  men  ever  seen.  The  earls  Eric  and  Swend 
both  allowed  themselves  to  be  baptized,  and  took  up 
the  true  faith ;  but  as  long  as  they  ruled  in  Norway 
they  allowed  every  one  to  do  as  he  pleased  in  holding 
by  his  Christianity.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
held  fast  by  the  old  laws,  and  all  the  old  rights  and 
customs  of  the  land,  and  were  excellent  men  and  good 
rulers.  Earl  Eric  had  most  to  say  of  the  two  brothers 
in  all  matters  of  government. 


END   OF    THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


LoNI>ON  : 

Printed  by  A.  Spottiswoodjl, 
New-  Street-  Square. 


NEW  WORKS 


PRINTBD    FOE 


LONGMAN,  BROWN,  GREEN,  AND  LONGMANS. 


I. 

BY  SAMUEL  LAING,  ESQ. 

TRANSLATOR   OF    "  THE    HEIMSKRINGLA." 

L  JOURNAL  OF  A  RESIDENCE  IN  NORWAY,  during  the 
years  1834,  1835,  and  1836;  made  with  a  view  to  inquire  into  the 
Rural  and  Political  Economy  of  that  Country,  and  the  Condition  of 
its  Inhabitants.     2d  Edition,  8vo.   14s. 

2.  NOTES  OF  A  TRAVELLER,  on  the  Social  and  Political  State  of 

France,   Prussia,  Switzerland,   Italy,   and   other   parts  of  Europe, 
during  the  present  century.     2d  Edition,  8vo.  16*. 

3.  A  TOUR  IN  SWEDEN,  in  1838  ;  comprising  Observations  on  the 

Moral,   Political,   and  Economical   State  of  the   Swedish   Nation. 
8vo.  12^. 

11. 
KING  ERIC  AND  THE  OUTLAWS ;    or,  the  Throne,  the  Church, 
and  the  People.    By  Ingemann.     Translated  from  the  Danish  by 
Jane  Frances  Chapman.     3  vols,  post  8vo.  31 5.  6d. 

"  This  tale  introduces  us  into  new  and  fertile  ground,  —  Denmark  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  characters  are  all  drawn  from  Danish  history  :  the  story  itself  is  full  of  incident  and  adven- 
ture. The  author  boldly  plunges  at  once  in  medias  res;  and  we  recollect  few  novels  in  which 
the  attention  of  the  reader  is  more  quickly  interested,  or  more  completely  absorbed.  The  charac- 
ters are  struck  off  with  a  shrewd  intelligence,  and  contrast  admirably;  and  the  whole  tale  is 
original,  lively  and  varied  in  no  common  degree,  reminding  us  of  the  chivalric  spirit  of  Scott." 

Court  Journal. 

III. 

THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  CZAR;  or.  Observations  on  the  Social, 
Political,  and  Religious  State  of  Russia,  and  its  Prospects,  made 
during  a  Journey  through  that  Empire.  By  the  Marquis  De  Cus- 
TiNE.     Translated  from  the  French.     3  vols,  post  8vo.  31 5.  6d. 

"  M.  De  Custine  has  exhibited  some  new  views  on  Russia  in  a  striking  and  attractive  way.  To 
the  Frenchman's  sparkling  vivacity  of  manner  he  adds  his  skill  in  seizing  upon  the  incidents 
of  action,  the  features  of  character,  or  the  points  of  things,  and  presenting  them  with  an  attrac- 
tive or  imposing  effect.  The  aristocratical  opinions  of  M.  De  Custine  also  impart  a  character  to 
his  sentiments  ;  as  his  politeness  refines  his  taste  and  gives  an  air  of  decorum  to  his  morals,  with- 
out modifying  his  French  confidence."  —  Spectator. 

"  A  remarkable  book,  full  of  lively,  curious,  extractable  matter.  The  Marquis  is  a  clever, 
spirited  writer ;  and  his  point  and  brilliancy  are  kept,  his  happy  hits  given,  and  his  vehement 
indignation  in  no  way  compromised,  in  this  excellent  translation."  —  Examiner. 

IV. 
RAMBLES  of  the  EMPEROR  CHING  TIH   IN   KEANG  NAN : 

a  Chinese  Tale.     Translated  by   Tkin  Shen ;   with  a  Preface  by 
James  Legge,  D.D.     2  vols,  post  8vo.  21*. 

"  These  rambles  of  the  Haroun  Alraschid  of  the  Celestial  Empire  give  a  very  curious,  and,  at 
the  present  moment,  a  peculiarly  interesting  view  of  Chinese  opinions,  usages,  and  institutions." 

Tait's  Magazine. 


New  Works  published  by  Longman  ^  Co. 


V. 
MISS    BREMER'S    SWEDISH    NOVELS. 

TRANSLATED  BY  MARY  HOWITT. 

1.  NEW  SKETCHES  OF  E VERY-DAY  LIFE  :  a  Diary.  Together 

with  Strife  and  Peace.     2  vols.  21 5. 

"  Of  all  Mary  Howitt's  translations  from  the  Swedish,  none  has  charmed  us  more  than  the 
beautiful  story  of  Strife  and  Peace."  —  Atlas. 

2.  THE  PRESIDENT'S  DAUGHTERS.    3  vols.  31*.  Qd. 

"  The  President's  Daughters  is  a  worthy  companion  to  The  Neighbours  —  simple  and  truthful." 

Athenaum. 

3.  THE    HOME  ;  or,  Family   Cares   and   Family  Joys.     2d  Edition. 

2  vols.  21 5. 

"  We  have  had  nothing  so  simply  life-like  since  Gait's  Annals  of  the  Parish  —  no  pictures  of 
female  nature  so  finely  touched  since  Miss  Austen's — Athenaeum. 

4.  THE   NEIGHBOURS :    a  Story  of  Every-Day  Life.     3d  Edition. 

2  vols.  I8s. 

"  The  scenes  it  unfolds,  the  characters  it  paints,  the  manners  and  habits  it  describes,  are  both 
original  and  obviously  true  to  nature ;  while  the  sentiments  expressetl  are  at  once  amiable  and 
pure,  adapted  to  chasten  the  heart  by  rectifying  the  affections."  —  Eclectic  Review. 

In  preparation, 

5.  TRALINNAN :  AXEL  AND  ANNA,  THE  H FAMILY,  &c. 

*^*  This  publication,  completing  the  series  of  the  Author's  published 
works,  will  contain  an  Autobiographical  Literary  Sketch,  written 
by  Miss  Bremer  expressly  for  Mrs.  Howitt's  English  translations. 

VI. 

WANDERINGS  OF  A  JOURNEYMAN  TAILOR,  through 
EUROPE  and  the  EAST,  during  the  years  1824  to  1840.  By 
P.  D.  HoLTHAUs,  Journeyman  Tailor,  from  Werdohl,  in  Westphalia. 
Translated  from  the  Third  German  Edition,  by  William  Howitt, 
Author  of  "  The  Rural  and  Social  Life  of  Germany,"  &c.  Fcap. 
Svo.  Portrait  of  the  Tailor,  65. 

♦•  Excepting  Holman's  narrative,  this  is  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  book  ever  published. 
There  is  much  naivete  in  the  light-hearted  wanderer's  descriptions  of  foreign  life  and  foreign  man- 
ners  among  the  middling  and  poorer  classes,  seen  under  a  new  and  curious  aspect.  The  translator 
has  faithfully  rendered  his  peculiarities  as  well  as  his  excellencies,  and  the  result  is  an  elegantly- 
printed  book,  surpassed  by  none  other  in  interest,  adorned  with  a  capital  and  characteristic  por- 
trait of  the  aiuthor.*'  —Observer. 

VII. 

THE  ROSE  OF  TISTELON :  a  Tale  of  the  Swedish  Coast.  By 
Emilie  Carlen.  Translated  from  the  original  Swedish.  2  vols, 
post  Svo. — In  the  Press. 


FOREST  LIFE.     By  Mary  Clavers,  an  Actual  Settler;  Author  of 
"  A  New  Home,  Who'll  Follow  ?"     2  vols.  fcap.  Svo.  125. 

"  These  graphic  sketches  of  life  in  the  backwoods,  thrown  off  with  so  skilled  a  pencil  that  one 
cannot  but  marvel  how  so  accomplished  a  literary  artist  of  the  gentler  sex  as  their  authoress 
should.have  sojourned  in  the  wildernesses  of  the  Far  West,  are  obviously  what  they  profess  to  be 
—  drawings  from  nature,  full  of  gay  and  grave  original  character ;  the  former  displaying  a  nice 
sense  of  the  ludicrous,  unvitiated  by  ill-natured  satire,  and  the  latter,  sound  feeling  and  not  a 
little  shrewd  philosophy."— AforniTi^  Herald. 


/' 


to/ti 


om 


».  ,v~'"  t^ 


^fnF" 


3 )  ^^_  l^--  IB  ^.  ^<^^-  '  ^^  ^  -^ 


DATE  DUE 


C'  A   ri'V 


WcWohW 


R  '  1  l§ 


AUG  041994 


AUG  1 


"JL  2  0  19^ 


r^3i^ 


AUG  1  8  ^ 


^i^ 


M^R,  0  4  ?fln4 


DEMCO,  INC.  38-2971 


BRIGHAM   YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 


3  1197  01062  3574